The Blurry Search
by Slipmaskin
Summary: The Strawhats are making one more stop before the New World and hope to finally get a relaxing time. Zoro and Robin are slowly but surely taking increasingly more interest in the other. Soon troubles arises as the crew encounters a strange pirate. Pre time-skip, Zoro x Robin
1. It's A New Morning

_This story begins when the Strawhats only recently have parted from Thriller Bark._

* * *

**Chapter 1. **

**It's A New Morning**

A noise is heard coming from down on deck when a door is opened and closed. A while after there was a faint sound of a clicking.

A smile appears on the womans face up in the Crow's nest. She didn't want to admit that she was somewhat tired for keeping night watch again, but her stomach she didn't deny. The fact that she soon was able to enjoy another outstanding breakfast cheered her up.

She let a small yawn escape her mouth as she let a hand run through her raven coloured hair.

Yes, the night had been a peaceful one. It would have been almost too peaceful for her liking if she didn't have had a book to read. Also, the coffee had helped her in two ways this night. First, of course, the caffeine made her alert but she also had entertained herself with a bit of practicing.

She had imagined the kitchen and made the coffee without leaving the Crow's nest. This took a lot of concentration and she had made an obvious dilemma for herself; If she wasn't careful enough, she could burn her hands.

She did at last successfully made a cup for herself and then she passed it on with her blooming hands all the way up to where she was sitting. She had even troubled herself to get another lump of sugar as the coffee had been a little too bitter for her liking.

This thought only made her feel peckish about another cup of the delicious black beverage and with that, Robin started to make her way down the ladder.

* * *

The cook on the ship was laying the table while having a rather satisfied facial expression. He occasionally chewed a little on the unlit cigarette in his mouth. Today he was in a particularly good mood, he didn't quite understand why but on the other hand found it unnecessary to know the reason for it.

He put the last dishes on the table and stood back to look over his work.

"Yes, this will definitely do," he mumbled to himself and smirked.

If his captain wasn't satisfied with this much food then hell with it, he was not going to make any more than this. He even wondered if his dear Nami-san would be angry with him for making this much already. He knew the food supply were running a little short but he always wanted the crew to please their stomachs to the fullest.

The door to the kitchen opened and a tall woman entered the room.

"It looks delicious, Kokku-san."

Sanji's eyes immediately formed pink hearts while he put his hands to the side of his head and moved his hips back and forward.

"Do you really think so, Robin-chwaaan?" he shouted happily.

Robin chuckled lightly.

"Good morning," she said and smiled.

"Oh, Robin-chan, I don't deserve this kindness! Good morning! I was just about to go wake the others when you showed up and blessed me with your beauty! Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yes, actually there is," she said and turned to leave the room again, "You can make me a cup of coffee while I go wake the others."

"Hai, Robin-chwan!"

* * *

Robin was about to knock on Nami's door when it suddenly opened.

"Oh, Kōkaishi-san, you're awake."

"Good morning, Robin." Nami grinned and added, "I couldn't sleep anymore knowing that we're going to arrive at a new island today."

"Exciting isn't it?"

"Yes, it has been such along time since I drew maps. Hopefully, we can finally relax a little bit. Are you waking the others?"

Robin nodded and smiled before she went on to the mens bedroom. She didn't care to knock because she knew that hardly anyone would hear it anyway. Instead, she just opened the door and went for the closest nakama.

"Seni-san, wake up." Robin shook him softly.

Chopper was almost immediately up dancing while Robin went to wake the rest.

There was a long row of moans as Luffy, Usopp, Franky and Brook sat up in their beds and then got up, walking to the door while yawning and rubbing their eyes. Luffy felt a faint smell of food and suddenly became totally alert.

"Nicu!" He started to run towards the kitchen as his voice became more and more distant to the others, "Nicu, nicu, nicu, nicu..!"

Usopp, Franky and Brook only continued with their sleepy gestures and with a shuffling gait they leaved the room.

A certain green haired swordsman had only turned around in his bed with a sleepy groan and then started snoring again.

"Kenshi-san..." Robin started but Chopper pulled gently at her pants to stop her from saying anymore.

"I think Zoro still needs to rest more, he has a very long way yet to be fully recovered," he whispered with a concerned expression.

"I understand," Robin whispered back at him and smiled, "we'll just save some food for him to eat later, then."

Chopper smiled back, glad that someone on this ship understood him this well. Together they left the room and went straight to the kitchen.

* * *

_Ok! The absolutely first chapter of my first fanfiction ever! I know there wasn't much that happened and there wasn't much Zoro at all - but be patient! You will see much of him in future chapters._

_I'm actually only writing on and have only very small plans as for what is going to happen xD_

_Anyway, I'm already writing on the next chapter so it will be out soon._

_Honest reviewers, I salute you! :)_


	2. The Most Important Meal

**Chapter 2.**

**The Most Important Meal**

"Robin-chwan, here is your cup of coffee! I made it with all my greatest effort!"

"Thank you," Robin took the cup and went to take a seat at the dinner table.

Sanji also took a seat and was about to start the breakfast but stopped when he realized that someone was missing.

"Oi, where's that shitty marimo-head?"

"Seni-san told me that he need more rest, so we let him sleep" Robin took a zip of the coffee.

"Ne, ne, Banji! Leb's sbart be breakbast albeady!" a drooling captain mumled, "We'b wust sabe bome bhor im, bigbt?"

"Yeah, right. Like hell _you_ are!" Sanji yelled, got up and went over to his captain and kicked him in the head, "Are you realizing that you asked if we could start the breakfast when you already had your mouth full!?"

Sanji kept on pressing Luffy's mispleased face to the ground with his foot, "Baka, baka... Baka!"

* * *

A while after the breakfast, Usopp sat on the edge of the Sunny, hoping to catch something interesting.

It had been quiet for some while now but he didn't give up. In fact, the silence was quite refreshing and he did enjoy it still.

"Usopp!" the sniper turned around but didn't have time to react before his captain had shoot himself from where he was standing.

"Wha, wa, wai, wait..! Wait a minute, Luf...!" he didn't have time to finish the sentence either before the person in question crashed into him and they were both about to fall over board.

Usopp screamed out of panic as he and his captain was on their way down to the ocean but suddenly they were falling no longer.

"Luffy, stop being so damn reckless," a grumpy voice was heard as they were thrown aboard again.

"Haha, that scared me! I thought I was going to die, haha!" Luffy sat on the ground with his hand on his stomach and kept on laughing.

"Bastard, watch where you're landing!" the sniper got up and showed his fist into his captains face.

"Ah, Zoro! You're up!" Of course, the fist in his face didn't affect him the least.

"Yeah, why didn't anyone wake me?" There was a hint of irritation in his voice, "Thanks to that, I missed breakfast."

"We left you some," a voice was heard behind them as well as a clicking sound of a lighter, "but you better stop with that sullen tone or you won't get any..." He exhaled the smoke and added, "shitty marimo."

"Shove it, ero-kokku!" the swordsman replied as he started to make his way to the kitchen.

"What was that, you ungrateful bastard!" Sanji stepped in front of him, "Don't think I'll let you have any now!"

"Oh, you are. Believe me," Zoro said, grimacing, as he went around the cook.

"You wanna start something, ha?" Sanji started to swing his leg at the green haired man.

The swordsman took up two of his sheated swords and started to swing them around as well, "Fine! You curly eyebr-"

"Shut up!" The navigator stepped in and punched them both to the ground, "Why do you always do that!? Geez!"

There was a small chuckle, "Impressive, Kōkaishi-san."

"Ah, Robin. Have you gathered everyone?"

"Yes, they are on their way here."

"What are you going to tell us, Nami?" The captain begun to jump up and down in the same spot out of excitement, "Are we arriving to Nicu Island soon?"

At the same time, Franky, Brook and Chopper also joined the commotion.

"Great, now everybody is here. Listen up!" Nami began to tell what she came there for in the first place, "It is as you say, Luffy. We're arriving at a new Island in approximately one hour."

"Nicu! Nicu, nicu..!"

"No!" A vein popped out on her forehead as she punched her captain, "The Island is named Liwatura." Nami took a deep breath, "Anyway, the Island is known to be lively and pirate friendly. It's our only stop before we can go to the New World so I thought we could relax a little while we're there and try to enjoy ourselves."

"Like a vacation?" asked Franky and started to grin.

"Yeah, sort of."

The rest of the crew began to cheer loudly.

"SUPER!"

"Okay, listen now. Everybody is going to do what they want eventually, but first," Nami pointed a finger up, "there's some chores we need to take care of."

Everybody (spare Robin, Zoro and Sanji) who had jumped around while cheering together suddenly stopped and started to groan.

"Don't worry, there isn't much." She smiled and turned to Sanji, "We need more food, right?"

"Hai, Nami-san! I was worried you would scold me because I used so much food for breakfast." Sanji made an innocent face and pouted, "But it's really hard feeding these bastards to the fullest every day!" He stared at the rest of the boys in the crew.

She waved him off, "No need to worry, Sanji-kun. We're arriving today, after all." She turned to the others again, "I will distribute the chores when we arrive but now you all have time to prepare yourselves. Zoro and Luffy, you always wear the same stupid clothes. I don't mind the rest of the crew, do as you like, but you two," she gave them a mean look, "you change your clothes or I will raise your debt," pointing at Zoro, "and forbid you to eat food!" pointing at Luffy.

"Stupid hag! It's not like I don't wash my clothes!" Zoro yelled at her.

"Yeah, but your outfit is starting to be an eyesore, it's so boring! And Luffy, do as I say or... Luffy?"

It took merely seconds as the captain disappeared and then showed up again, wearing a dark green vest and black shorts.

"Please, Nami. Look, I did what you said." An anxious look on his face, "Don't let me starve to death, please!"

Sanji began to laugh and with that, everybody started to wander away to prepare themselves.

* * *

Zoro cursed under his breath as he made his way down to the mens bedroom again. He didn't care about his appearance, damn it. That stupid witch didn't have to care either. If his clothes is such an eyesore, then why does she have to look at him?

He wasn't sure if he even had a debt to pay anymore.

"...devilish woman..." he muttered as he took the white shirt of.

The bandages over his chest and stomach loosened from this action and fell to the ground. Zoro snorted and left them there, they only disturbed him anyway.

He grabbed some random clothing from the wardrobe - a black tank top, as it turned out to be - and put it on.

Suddenly, an arm bloomed out from the floor and picked up the bandages. Three arms bloomed out from Zoro's leg and passed the bandages up. He stiffened, feeling rather freaked out and stared at the hands. Finally only one on his hip remained, holding the bandages up in front of him.

"Seni-san will be angry with you," a smooth voice came from behind.

He turned to look at the raven haired archaeologist standing at the doorway.

"They're just in my way..." the swordsman answered and awkwardly took the bandages from the arm at his hip which disappeared shortly after.

"But they help you recover, Kenshi-san."

"What do you want?"

"I came to remind you that there's still some breakfast over for you." She tipped her head a little to one side and smiled.

"Um, yeah... thanks?" he answered just as awkwardly as when he had taken the bandages. He couldn't believe how stupid it had sounded and that he had actually forgotten breakfast too.

The woman remained still and her expression soon changed to that of a concerned one.

"...What?"

Actually she wanted to talk about what happened at Thriller Bark but knew that the last thing the swordsman in front of her wanted was sympathy. She was worried about him but she didn't really know why. He was doing okay after all, or so it seemed. Robin knew that he was good at hiding his feelings and even if he was in big pain, physical or mental, he would try to hide it as much as he could.

Even if she only would like to talk about it, without showing any kind of sympathy, it wouldn't be that simple; he would not open to her just like that. After some consideration she decided to leave it be.

"Oh, nothing. You should hurry and eat, we're arriving soon." With that she walked away.

* * *

_There it is! The second chapter, fast am I not? ;D_

_Yeah, there isn't very much action here either but hey, it WILL come xD_

_Reviews in my heart!  
_


	3. Arriving

**Chapter 3.**

**Arriving**

"Okay, so this is how we're going to do this," the ships navigator stated, standing in front of the rest of the crew. "Sanji, you take Luffy and Brook with you and go to town for food supplies."

"Hai, Nami-san!"

"Franky, Sunny needs a bit of reparation, right?"

"Yes, I need to fix some minor things and also stock up on the Cola."

"All right, take Usopp with you. As for me and Robin, we're going to get information about the Island. What about you, Chopper? Do you need anything?"

"Well, I could use a few instruments to make my medical-equipment complete again."

"All right, Brook can go with you instead then."

"Yo-ho-ho-ho! It doesn't matter to me. Regardless, I will do my best!"

"Oi, doesn't Marimo-head have to do anything?" complained Sanji and glared at the person in question.

"You, Zoro, need to... Hey, what the..!" Nami angrily stepped forward to the appearantly sleeping swordsman sitting against the rail, "Wake the hell up!" she yelled as she punched him in the head.

"Wha..?"

"Try to stay awake, we're going in to town. You mission is to guard the ship, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

"Whatever? What do you mean 'whatever'..?!" she started but knew there wasn't any point in arguing now, "Aaah, whatever..!"

She turned to the others again, shaking off a hopeless face.

"Anyway, I tell you more later when we have information. As soon as everybody is done, you're going back to the ship immediately and then we'll have lunch. Now, let's go!"

As the others wandered away, Zoro just let himself fall asleep again. If anyone tried to take over the ship, he would surely wake up, right?

* * *

Robin and Nami soon noticed that the rumors of the Island were true. Maybe they weren't the most wanted among the crew but even so, this far it hadn't been a single person who had looked strangely at them.  
If it was because, even now in the morning, most of them were drunk or because they simply didn't care, the navigator and archaeologist did not know. Maybe it was because of both reasons.

Liwatura was a rather big town in range but the buildings were not taller than 2 or 3 floors. It had a lively and cosy atmosphere. Everything had a kind of soft yellow and brown color, obviously a fall island. Nami noted the season to be somewhere between summer and autumn as well.

People seemed to be happy and nice, whether they were drunk or not and most of them calm. Therefore, they could easily ask nearest person for information.

* * *

Sanji and Luffy had found a lot of food, partly because the captain had requested a lot of meat and partly because the cook had found many interesting ingredients. Sanji took advantage of Luffy's strength and stretching abilities and used him as the pack-ass.  
He had also noted that there were many beautiful women on the island.

"Oh, I think I'm going to like it here!" he happily mumbled for himself.

On their way back to the ship they met up with Franky and Usopp.

"Oi, Luffy! Did you find any good looking food?" asked the sniper although he knew it was a dumb question as their captain would eat almost anything. And by the looks of the amounts of food Luffy was carrying on his back, they had found plenty of it.

"Yes, this Island is great! They had so much meat!" The captain started to drool heavily and seemed to dream off a little.

"Yeah, I think it seems great too! I saw a very interesting store with cool stuff that I will... Hey!" He saw that Luffy didn't pay attention to a word he was saying and so he punched him over the head, "Listen when people are talking to you!"

* * *

Zoro awoke when he felt something falling down on his legs and opened up one tiresome eye.

"He..? Who the hell are you?" he said, finally alert when noting that the thing over his legs appearantly was a man.

Zoro immediately pushed the man off of him and rose to a standing position. He grabbed and unsheathed Sandai Kitetsu, then held the tip of the blade to the kneeling mans throat. From his now current posture he could see that there were more people on their way boarding the Sunny.

"Three swords...! H-h-holy crap! That's the demon cutter! R-R-Roronoa Zoro!" one man nervously yelled as he had stopped making his way any further on to the ship.

The man standing on his knees in front of the swordsman got an even more horrified facial expression and gulped.  
Zoro made a serious face and pushed the tip of his sword a little further into the mans throat. One small sipper of blood made its way down from where the sharp blade was lightly piercing through the skin.

He heard the others worrying about him. "...He shows no mercy..!", "...120 million bounty..!", "...He's going to kill him..!"

"What do you want?" Zoro demanded, but before he gave him a chance to answer he noticed that some of the others were sneaking their way down from the Sunny, "Stop right there if you don't want to get killed," he stated calmly.

They immediately flinched and didn't move an inch more even if their position was uncomfortable. Zoro couldn't resist to smirk about his reputation a little. To the man in front of him it would surely only appear to be a bloodthirsty and devilish smile.

To be feared.  
The only ones he didn't want to appear fearful before was his nakama, and that he had accomplished, or at least he hoped so.  
In this situation, however, it was especially good to be feared. It would really strain him to fight off this many people in his current condition. He even hoped that he didn't need to fight any of them.

As much as he wanted to deny them, his gruesome sore wounds were there, pounding, and even only as he moved and his clothing touched them it stung terribly throughout his whole body. He couldn't believe how annoying it actually was to feel his body aching when he only moved. His body reminded him constantly, in every move he made, that it sure was straining itself already - but god damnit, a man has got to be able to move!

"Oi, answer my question," he threatened and leaned down a little to the man. It stung, "what the hell do you want?"

"N-n-nothing!"

"So why did you come here?"

"I-I... I don't kn-know!"

"If you don't even know the reason why, then get the hell out of here," Zoro said calmly and forcefully pushed his blade to the side, blood seemingly for the others sent flying through the air from the kneeling man. It left a small but pulsing wound.  
He lowered his sword as a sign for everybody to piss off, and it didn't take long before they all ran in panic away from the Sunny.

He could feel the awakening thirst from Sandai Kitetsu and somewhat it seemed disappointed for not getting to taste more of the red fluid.  
Zoro let out a deep sigh in relief. _Shit, if he didn't have stumbled over me I would have been so screwed..._

* * *

"We're back, Kenshi-san."

Zoro awoke again and opened one eye. This time, however, he saw a tall raven haired woman standing in front of him.

"Did something interesting happen?"

"Not really."

* * *

_I'm the fastest updater ever! Mohahahaha. Not very strange, really, I don't have school or job or.. anything! I have plenty of time for any unnecessary things!_

_What do you think about this chapter? I know it also turned out kinda short but it just felt right to stop there xD_

_It's kinda good in one way. I can almost promise you another chapter within 30 hours at least ;D  
_


	4. The Meadow

**Chapter 4.**

**The Meadow**

"Let go of it, Luffy! You already had seven of these!" yelled the sniper while having a tug-of-war with his captain.

"Yeah, but I'm really hungry! Don't be so selfish, Usopp!"

"Wh-WHAT!? Are you kidding me, idiot captain!?"

"Cut it out already you two!" yelled Nami and slammed her fist in the table, "I'm going to tell you all now how we are-"

"Give it to me, Usopp! I need it!" Luffy continued with the struggle.

Nami clenched her fist hard and Franky could have sworn there was steam coming out from her ears.

"Oi, Luffy! Here, have mine and shut the hell up!" Zoro threw the dish in his captains face and then turned, together with the rest of the crew, to Nami again.

"Thanks, Zoro." She sighed and continued, "As you all know, Robin and I went to gather information about the Island earlier. Evidently, the log pose needs five days to set, so that gives us plenty of free time. We have hired a guard for the ship so that we can enjoy ourselves to the fullest. However, it isn't far at all to town from here, therefore I haven't booked us in at a hotel, we're sleeping on the Sunny."

"How are we going to do with meals?" wondered Robin.

"Hmm, well, I thought about it and came up with a solution. We decide on certain times and the ones who wants food shows up at the ship at then. Regardless, everybody should meet at a certain time everyday so we can check that everything is alright. We can make that time dinnertime."

"Nee-chan, are you sure it's okay to leave the Sunny with that guard?" asked Franky.

"I'm pretty sure, but if you want to remain and keep watch, suit yourself." Nami smiled, stood up and started to make her way out of the kitchen, "Me and Robin are going to town shopping. We meet here at 6 am. Are you coming, Robin?"

"I'll be right with you, Kōkaishi-san."

* * *

Zoro looked at his surroundings. He had first went through town and now he was suddenly out in the wild open. He simply didn't know where he was anymore, not that it mattered for the time being. He had wandered away far from the town and the ship in the first place with hopes to find a distant place suited for training. Well, the distant part wasn't a problem now at least.

He was standing on some sort of unnaturally big yellow and pink meadow, it reached as long as he could see, completely surrounding the small town visible in the horizon. It probably continued over the whole Island. Not far away from where he was standing there seemed to be a deep forest, surrounding the meadow and the whole Island as well. It was big, but looked calm. The meadow did as well, the only disturbance was a smooth wind that stroke over it.

Zoro knew that Chopper had totally forbidden him all sorts of training until the day he said it was okay. Of course, both knew that it wouldn't work out very well. It had only been several days since he had awoke from his three days of sleep after Thriller Bark.

Before leaving the ship earlier he had accidentally told the crew that he was going training (an old habit was his excuse for himself). Chopper had panicked and begged him not to, then he had also discovered that his bandages were gone and freaked out while he began climbing up and down on the swordsman. In only matters of seconds, he had bandaged him all over again with an extra thick layer that was hard to remove. Well, hard to remove for people who didn't carry sharp objects day out and day in. Why did his most frequent patient had to be the most troublesome as well?

Zoro didn't see any reason to go any further for the little training he might be able to do. He was going to exersize something that didn't take so much physical effort for now, and that was balance and precision.

He sighed.

_What if the same thing happens again? I'm not going to be strong enough to protect them, especially not in this condition. I'm certainly not going to be as lucky as I was at Thriller Bark..._

He didn't want to make the others worry over him. He didn't want them to worry about anything, but things weren't as easy anymore. They were a famous pirate crew and their enemies were only going to get stronger and stronger from here on. So, they must prepare themselves for any kind of opponent.

Zoro put his hand firmly on his chest and thought about removing the bandages. They would only disturb his movements. He felt an intense sting of pain from under where his hand was. Startled, he quickly removed his hand, it left a burning aftertaste. Was his condition really this bad? One touch and it really did hurt this much?

_Stupid body, heal already! Shit, what if I fall..?_

Maybe he could ease Choppers heart and mind a little if he let the bandages stay on... Only for this time.

* * *

Robin had been with Nami and Sanji on a shopping tour around town. She had agreed to the navigators wish but also wanted to explore the island. Sanji, who had insisted to accompany them, offered to take her shopping bags back to the ship. Then she had made her way through the rest of the town and as time passed by while walking, she was currently no longer in a civilized area.

Liwatura had a beautifully big meadow just outside town and by the end of it Robin could spot only forest. She had noted the houses in town to be fairly old and hoped to find something exciting in the nature as well. By the looks of it, she wasn't going to be that lucky but maybe if she went through the woods a little...

* * *

Zoro moved slow and balanced while he had his eyes closed. He wanted to have absolutely full control over his movements and so he tried to be as slow as he could while swinging his swords and divided his weight even over his body. He mixed it up so that he started and ended with his many different attacking stances.

He was suddenly interrupted as he heard a crack coming from the forest. He calmly opened his eyes and aimed his hearing at the woods.  
It definitely sounded like something or someone was coming closer his way. The forest was darker the deeper it went and what was causing the noise wasn't within visible range yet. The cracking of sticks being broken on the ground was becoming louder and it sounded somewhat clumsy.

"Oops!" A female voice was heard and then there was a long moan, "Itai, itai, itai! The hell? That's NOT supposed to bend that way... or wait... is it..?"

Zoro frowned and wanted the now ensured someone to step out of the forest. He curiously listened to what more the assumed 'she' would say. It sounded to the swordsman like only now she had fell and hurt herself.

"Oh my god, how the hell am I going to go... I mean go! I mean like, walk! Wait... I don't believe in God... Man, he can go to hell! But if there's a hell, does that mean there is a... God? Haha! God can't go to hell because... ehm, because... yeah, he can't go anyway... no, anywhere.. if he doesn't exist! Haha, I'm so smart! But I like to say 'hell'. Damn it all! That sucks!

Another moan was heard and Zoro begun to wonder if he should go and help her. She seemed to not be alright, but then he mostly meant mentally. Was she talking to herself? Zoro could in any case not sense another person nearby.

Out of curiosity, he walked a few steps closer to the forest. At the same time, it seemed like the woman had made a few more steps too. Now she was visible to Zoro.

She was leaning against a tree, still mumbling for herself stuff that the swordsman could not make out.

"Oi, are you okay?" he asked her awkwardly.

She jerked and blindly started to look where the voice was coming from, "Maaan... am I hearing things.. or what..." Her peering eyes still didn't find anything and then she started to laugh.

"Oi!"

This time Zoro had walked up in front of her to meet her gaze.

"Holy shit, there _was_ someone there! Haha, I'm not crazy! Yosh!" She started to cheer for a while but then she began to look more closely at the swordsman, "Wait, who the hell are you? Haha!"

The woman seemed to have a very giggly humour at the moment and Zoro realized now that she was very drunk. The swordsman noted that he was only slightly taller than her.

"Are you alright?" he asked her again, almost irritated.

"Me? I'm fine! But where the hell AM I?!" She started to clumsy make her way past Zoro, wanting to get out of the forest. Suddenly, her ankle gave in and she was about to fall to the ground when Zoro caught her by wrapping an arm around her collar bones from behind.

"Oi, careful!" Appearantly the woman was too drunk to even walk. Zoro didn't feel like being patient and lifted her light body up over his shoulder and carried the woman out to the meadow. He sat her down on the ground and inspected her now when he could see clearly.

She had dark green hair, long at her right side and snagged short on the left. She had a seemingly lighter green coloured bang slanting to her right side.

When she looked up to him he was a bit startled by her red coloured empty-looking eyes. If they were empty-looking because of the alcohol or not he couldn't decide. Her gaze could tell him that she was thoroughly drunk, though.

"What were you doing all the way out in the woods? Geez," Zoro asked, still looking down on her from where he stood in front of the woman.

"Haha, I have no idea!"

As she spoke, Zoro noticed two piercings on each side of her upper lip and one in the middle on her lower, forming a down pointing triangle.

"So you don't know where you are?"

She exaggeratedly looked around on her surroundings before answering, "No! I have no idea! Funny, isn't it?" And with that, she began to laugh again.

"Man, you really need to sober up."

"Me? But I haven't drank anything at all! I'm as sopher.. somber.. so... that you can be!" She tried to stand up but failed.

The woman was wearing a short and loose top that left most of her ribs and her stomach visible but didn't have a décolletage. It had long sleeves and was coloured mostly black, leaving two down going stripes of green and red at each side.

She also wore brown leather gloves which sort of matched with a very wide leather belt around her hips. Under it she wore long tight sitting black shorts.

What especially interested the swordsman was what were attached to leather holdings wrapped around her respective thigh. On the outer side of them he saw two short swords, not longer than her thighs.

She firmly put her middle high black boots in the grass and tried to rise again, almost successful this time. "See? I'm perfectly- ouch!"

Zoro grabbed her from falling again and supported her balance.

"Maybe you have sprained your ankle, or something," Zoro said as he sat her down on the ground again.

"Oh, man! Not again!"

Zoro almost laughed at the thought of her doing this rather often, "Stay on the ground and don't try to get up," he said as he went to pick up his water bottle. He handed it to her, "Here, drink this."

She only did as she was told.

* * *

The archaeologist was still exploring the woods. She had found a few interesting things but not any particularly big. Her legs started to grow a bit tired by now and so she decided to head back to the Sunny.

Robin enjoyed the beautiful meadow and suiting warm weather and happily realized that the nearest way back to the ship was not to turn back and go through the town. With a rather slow pace she started to make her way through the soft yellow and pink coloured grass. Robin let the nature envelop her and it made her feel unnaturally calm.

After some time of walking she spotted, slightly to her right, a person standing a few hundreds of meters from where she were. As she made her way closer to the person she finally could make out who it was.

She smiled and stepped up the pace a little.

* * *

_I don't know if I really made it within 30 hours cause I slept like a goddamn 20 hours! xD_

_Anyway, here it is, the fourth chapter. How am I doing?_

_Please review! mahahah :D:D:DD_


	5. What to do

**Chapter 5.**

**What to do**

"Kenshi-san?"

"Ha?" Zoro could see a tall woman just about 50 meters away from him, "Oh, Robin. What are you doing here?"

"I was heading back to the ship when I saw you here." She continued to walk towards the swordsman.

He felt kind of relieved as he had no idea of what he was supposed to do with the person sitting on the ground in front of him. Robin would know what to do. After all, she seemed to know almost everything.

"Oh, hi!" the girl on the ground suddenly yelled and waved at the archaeologist. Once again, she tried to stand up but Zoro held her down and firmly told her to remain stiill.

"Who is this?" Robin were now standing a few meters away from them.

"I don't know, she just came from-"

"I'm Kiwa!" she cut him off and put on a big smile, "Who are you? Are you two friends?"

Robin walked to stand beside Zoro in front of the girl.

"Yes, Kenshi-san and I are good friends. My name is Robin." She squat herself down to eyelevel with the girl and could see that she wasn't sober, "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I don't really know..." She turned her head slightly upwards into a thinking position, gazing at the sky.

"She was just coming from the woods while I was here training," Zoro explained.

"I see..." Robin looked up to him, smiled lightly and added "You shouldn't train, Kenshi-san."

"Aa-aah! Shut up!" Man, was he getting tired of that comment. Moreover, there was just something about this raven haired woman that could irritate him to no end. When around her sometimes he felt intruded and somewhat like she was playing with him. He sighed and with a lighter tone in his voice he replied, "Don't worry, I didn't even had the chance before she turned up."

"What are we going to do with her?" the archaeologist asked while she rose up again.

"I don't know. I don't really care but I think she have sprained her ankle or something," the swordsman answered.

"So you think we should take her to Seni-san?"

"Well, we can't just leave her here, right?"

"You're right, that would be rather cold-hearted." She walked up to the girl, "She can't walk, right? Should I take her? I don't mind."

"Wha..?" He stared at Robin. Was she pitying him? Or was she just playing around again? Or worse, both? "No... No, I'll take her!"

"You should not strain yourself, Kenshi-san."

"I'm fine! Dammit, I'm not _that_ weak!" He tried to sound convincing and walked up to the other side of the girl.

"What... What are you two arguing over? I can walk perfectly fine by myself! Just look!" Kiwa tried to rise again but when she succeeded, she immediately felt over in a face plant.

The others sweat dropped.

Zoro picked her up and settled her hanging over his right shoulder. He sure was not going to carry this idiotic person bridal style.

He started to walk off with a quick pace and then looked back to Robin, rather frustaded he yelled, "Are you coming?"

"Yes, but the ship is this way." She pointed in the opposite direction.

Face turning blood red, Zoro turned around and angrily picked up an even quicker pace, "Shut up!" he shouted to the chuckling woman.

* * *

Franky had stayed on the ship the whole day. He had prepared the Sunny and fixed her minor flaws.

He had never intended to get off the ship in the first place. He knew that by the time he would be finished, dinner would be ready. By the looks of it, he was right in his assumption, the clock was 5.20 am.

The whole day he had only walked around on his dream-ship. Sliding his hands on almost every rail, walked in almost every staircase and even had measured that the balance was okay. He knew that it easily could be disturbed by things that others didn't tend to mind. That swordsman with his ridiculously heavy weights was the ultimate example. That's why Franky had evened out them as well up in the crows nest.

Anyway, now there was absolutely nothing more he could do, not even some finishing polish were left undone. Therefore, he started to make his way up to deck. Once there, he noticed a seemingly confused captain standing at the lawn.

"Oi, Strawhat, back already?"

"Ah, Franky! Yeah, I went to town because I was hungry and I ate thiiis much food!" Luffy stretched out his arms to each side, trying to describe the amount, "But then I didn't know where to go and then I became really hungry again and I came back here. Is dinner ready?"

"I don't know, ask the curly cook."

"SANJI...!" Luffy ran into the kitchen.

"Impatient, isn't he?"

Franky looked over the rail to see two of his nakama about to board the ship.

"Hey, you guys! What were you.. wait, who's that?" he asked, confusion consuming his face as the archaeologist and swordsman soon stood in front of him, Zoro carrying what seemed to be a person over his shoulder.

Zoro explained in a summary to the shipwright what had happened.

"Soo ka, is she sleeping or something?" Franky lightly knocked on her head, "Oi, nee-chan wake up!"

"Oi, careful! Think about the hangover tomorrow!" Zoro said and stepped away from Franky a little. He couldn't really explain why he even cared. Maybe it was only a reflex as he was all too familiar with the feeling of a banging head the day after himself.

Robin only chuckled. The swordsman amused her to no end. Everybody knew very well what his goal was in life and what he was willing to do to get there. Yet, he always managed to surprise everyone when he talked about his dream. He never failed to get the clear message through everyones head, even though he had made it clear many times before. Then there was these occasions when he managed to surprise everyone by showing his actual humane sides.

People who didn't knew him saw him as a demon without feelings. This reputation only strengthen the fun in seeing him act like he just had.

"Oh, and don't you look smug," Zoro said while looking at the archaeologist.

"What..?" Robin found herself a little off and realized she had been staring at him the whole time.

Zoro had noticed it but choose to not care for it, for now.

"Is Chopper back yet?" he asked Franky.

"ZOROOOOOO!" a worried voice was heard below on land but in just a few minor seconds the doctor had made his way up on board, "Are you hurt again? I knew it! I told you not to train! Why don't you listen to me? Now I have to- uh?"

"Here, catch!" Zoro had neatly thrown Kiwa against him, "This is your patient, not me."

Chopper panicked, "NO, wait, what?!"

Finally, he had to transform into his heavy point so he could catch the person.

"ZOROOO, don't ever do that again!"

"Whatever..." he smirked.

Kiwa was indeed asleep as Franky had thought earlier. Brook and Usopp had came back together with Chopper and was finally aboard.

"What's going on here?" asked Usopp and then looked at the person in Choppers arms, "Who is that?"

"Oh, I am NOT explaining this again," Zoro grunted.

"Seni-san, it appears that this person has sprained her ankle. We found her very drunk out in the forest earlier. It seemed that she didn't know where she was," Robin explained, "I suggest that you take care of her now and then we talk to her when she wakes up."

"Uhm, yes.. of course. I'm the doctor, after all." Chopper carried her towards his medical room but the others remained still.

"Yo-ho-ho-ho, do you think I can see her panties later?"

* * *

_Another pretty short chapter. I don't know, I could have wrote more but if felt right to stop there._

_I have a feeling that it maybe was a little too much dialouges in this chapter, whatever, they too need do come sometime xD_

_However, I'm trying not to only concentrate on Zoro and Robin. Of course, they are the main chars in the fic but to ignore the others completely would not only leave a pretty empty story, it would feel rather harsh to do so too xD_

_Well, now I'm off to the dentist! Remember to drop a review! :D  
_


	6. Don't Strain

**Chapter 6.**

**Don't Strain**

Nami was the last onte to return to the ship. She had wanted to be in the town longer but knew that Sanji had to get back so he could prepare dinner. Luckily, he had carried her shoppingbags, as well as Robin's, back to the Sunny.

She was very happy. Some of the gold she had gained at Thriller Bark had she turned in. She didn't even had to be tricky with the man, without any arguing at all the navigator had gained more money than she had ever expected the gold to be worth.

It had been a funny and interesting town and everyone had been really nice. It was even hard to walk away from there, but knowing that she soon could return, she headed back.

With a little trouble, because of the bags with money, she climbed up on deck.

"Hey, everybody!" she greeted the crewmembers standing in a crowd at the lawn in front of her.

"Welcome back, Kōkaishi-san." The archaeologist turned to her.

"What's with those confused faces?" Nami asked, looking at Usopp, Franky and Brook. Strangely, even though he was a skeleton, she could see that Brook was confused also.

"We have a visitor."

Robin explained the situation.

"Soo ka." Nami looked towards the medical room, "Is Chopper working on her right now?"

The navigator got tit for tat as the doctor came out from the room and closed the door behind him.

"Oh, hi Nami!" he said, although not having a very happy face.

"How is her foot doing, Seni-san?" asked Robin and she noted that he almost was about to dance for a second.

"It wasn't sprained." He turned to having a serious expression again, "It was totally broken. The bone was snapped in two wholes, only having ligaments holding it together."

"Could you fix it?" Robin asked again, the only one who didn't stood gaping like speechless.

"I did my best to stabilize it but she definitely won't be walking for a long time." Chopper then turned to a certain swordsman leaning at the wall, "Zoro! How could you just throw her at me! It could have made things even worse!"

"Sorry Chopper, I didn't think it was that bad."

"How could you possibly have thought that? Having the foot broken like this usually hurts very, very much!"

"But it didn't seem like she was even in pain at all! By the time I think she broke it, she just went 'itai, itai' a few times and then still continued her way out of the forest."

"I agree with Kenshi-san. She was on the other hand very drunk but she appeared to be fine otherwise. We couldn't see how serious it was either because of her boot."

"But, but... even if she was drunk, there's no way she wouldn't be in pain!" Chopper made a very hopeless face and then started to walk in circles while thinking.

"Uhm, but she's asleep now, isn't she?" Nami bugged into the conversation and then added, "There's nothing in particular we can do now, right? I'm sure Sanji is ready with dinner about now so let's go eat instead of standing here."

"Yeah, girlie here is right," Franky said and declared, "Let's eat!"

* * *

During dinner they explained also to their captain and cook what had happened. While Sanji was excited that there was another woman on their ship, Luffy was just generally interested.

"Why did she came from the forest? Does she live there?" he asked the casually eating swordsman.

"Uuh, Luffy," Zoro sighed, "How should I know? She's a complete stranger to me."

"She didn't know where she was," Robin explained, "so I don't think that she lives there, sencho-san."

"Soo ka, she's a mystery person then..." Luffy turned into a thinking position for a while but then turned to Zoro again, "Haha, what were you doing all the way out there anyway?"

"Uhm, nothing..."

"Don't lie!" Chopper angrily rose from his seat and stood on the table while pointing his little hoove at the swordsman, "You said you were gonna train!" He moaned out of desperation and his eyes darkened out of overwrought terror, "Don't you understand Zoro!? If you don't take it easy you can die!"

"Relax, I didn't do any serious stuff," the swordsman calmly replied as he continued his meal, "Besides, I didn't have much time to train before that girl showed up anyway."

"But you carried her all the way here!"

Zoro didn't reply nor made an expression. She had been very light but carrying her all that way in his current condition really had strained him a little. He could hardly even confess that for himself.

"Ne, ne, Nami!" the captain yelled meanwhile stuffing more food into his mouth, "Bhad arb e boihg go bo bow?"

A foot buried itself in his face.

"Bastard! Don't speak with food in your mouth while talking to women!"

Luffy quickly swallowed everything at the same time and released a relieved sigh, "What are we going to do now, Nami?"

Completely unaffected by her captains behavior she replied, "Well, I've already told you right? This is like a vacation, you are essentially free to do what you want. However, I guess someone has to stay on the ship now, right?" She looked at the doctor.

"Yes, but you all can go, I won't leave my patient," Chopper replied with a smile.

"Are you sure that you'll be alright by yourself, Chopper-kun? That's so noble of you, yo-ho-ho-ho!"

"Shut up! Bastard! I'm not happy! That doesn't make me happy at all!" he said but was as usual giving away his true feelings as he danced back and forth.

"He won't be alone," Robin said, "My legs are pretty tired after walking around all day so I will probably stay here too."

* * *

Later, the crew was ready again to head for the town. They didn't really know what they would do there but most of them agreed that they were going to party and have a good time.

"Aren't you going with them, Kenshi-san?" asked the archaeologist and looked at Zoro who remained still. He was sitting leaned against a wall at the lawn. His swords was leaned against one of his shoulders and one arm hung loose around them.

"No," he simply replied. Then he thought that it may had sounded a bit cold without an explanation and smiled smugly while he added, "I shouldn't strain myself, right?"

The raven haired woman chuckled, "Yes, you're right."

She was heading for the kitchen but then turned and asked, "I'm gonna get a cup of coffee, would you like one too?" Maybe it was a futile try, she rarely saw the swordsman drinking the beverage. Surely the question must have sounded awkward. Why was she even asking? Did she just wanted the conversation to keep on going a little more now that he seemed to be in a better mood?

Zoro thought about it for a second. He knew that she knew that coffee wasn't really something of his liking. She was probably only acting nice but he didn't mind, at least not this time. He had been a little tired before but now he simply didn't feel like sleeping anymore.

"Yeah, I can take a cup," he answered. He wasn't sure if he even had made the decision in his mind, the words just slipped out from his mouth.

"Okay then," she replied, rather surprised that he had actually agreed. She smiled and went off to the kitchen.

"So what are you gonna do?" Zoro asked the little reindeer who was heading towards his medical room.

Chopper smiled, "I'm going to make some new medicines. One is for you, it's gonna make you heal faster!"

"Hoo?" The swordsman grinned, "That's good! I'm really starting to feel restless 'cause I can't train."

The little doctor giggled. "I'll do my best!" Then he went into the room and closed the door.

_He is such a child_, Zoro thought and smiled a little for himself.

Suddenly a white cup appeared in front of him, shallow reeks came from it.

"I think he is glad that you haven't removed your bandages this time, Kenshi-san."

Zoro took the cup. The hand that sprouted from the wall and had held it disappeared with a faint clinging sound as well as something that looked like pink flowers. He looked up at the woman standing to his right. She held a cup for herself and in her other hand she held a book. She also had one arm coming out from the other one that held a candle. The light from it reflected in her eyes, making them sparkle ever so slightly.

"Can I sit here?" she asked but was already on her way down.

"Well... sure," he answered oddly seeing as she had already settled herself, sitting by his right side leaned to the wall.

They both took a zip of the hot coffee.

"How is it?" she asked.

"It's fine," he said. It had actually been surprisingly good and he soon took another zip.

Robin smiled and watched him do so. Before he would have felt strange about it though, she turned her head upwards to watch the sky instead.

"It's going to be a starry night."

Zoro imitated her and also watched the sky. It was coloured blue and had a hint of purple and orange. The sun was about to set but it wasn't visible from where they were seated. He noted that, indeed, the stars were going to reveal themselves anytime soon.

Robin opened up her book. It was a new one so she turned up the first page.

"What are you reading?"

A little startled by the sudden interest, she smiled and handed it to him, "Here, take a look by yourself."

Zoro put down his cup on the ground and received the book from her. It was brown with green edges and was rather old looking.

"The title is 'To Perfect The Use Of The Devil Fruit'. I'm only about to start reading it now."

Zoro flipped through the pages and noticed that there were many pictures in it.

"Seems interesting," he said casually and shut the book closed. He didn't want to admit it but he had really meant what he said. He handed it back to her.

"You can borrow it when I'm finished," she said and chuckled.

Zoro didn't say anything but finished his cup of coffee. He decided to ignore the fact that the caffeine now was running through his body and take a nap anyway.

To talk to him about Thriller Bark wasn't Robins purpose from the beginning. In fact, she had even forgotten that she wanted to. Now, however, it had crossed her mind once again. She wanted to sort some things out with him but now it just didn't seem right to bring it up. Even if she was on really good terms with him now, she didn't want to destroy this moment. She knew that the conversation surely would end with some wry faces.

She looked at him. His peaceful expression could tell that he already was asleep. When she thought about it, she rarely saw this expression otherwise. Even when he was neutral or happy, he had those narrowed eyebrows pointing down, making him look almost mean, still. He had them when sleeping too, sure, but it was like they were totally relaxed now.

Her eyes found their way back to the book in her hands. She felt relaxed and safe. A big smile appeared on her face as she started to read.

* * *

_Yosh! The 6,th chapter! Took a while, but I really was out of ideas for this one. Besides, I was really into drawing this week so that took most of my time._

_I don't really know why, but it seems that some parts of this whole story goes with VERY little detail and other much more. It goes like in waves xD Shame on me. I'm gonna try change that and specify more things in the future._

_"She knew that that conversation surely would end with some wry faces." Can anybody tell me if I did right putting two "that" in that sentence? I feels both right and wrong xD *EDIT* Screw it, I changed it now xD  
_

_Anyway, thank you for reading and please review! Those of you who have written a story yourself knows how fun it is to read reviews, however critical they are. I'd say, the more critical, the funnier! And you who haven't written a story; well, it's REALLy, REALLY FUN gaining reviews! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR :D  
_


	7. Do Not Forget To Rest

**Chapter 7.**

**Do not forget to rest**

Robin jerked and looked up from her book. It was much darker now than she remembered it to be. The only thing that lit up the place were the beautifully shining white lights in the sky and they had definitely not been that visible the last time she had checked. When she looked at where a flame was supposed to burn on a candle, she saw none. She must had sat there for some time now.

Suddenly a yawn came from her mouth and her eyelids felt very heavy. Had she been sleeping? No, but she had certainly been in a state somewhere close to it. She had in any case didn't noticed that she was tired when she was reading for what seemed to be just a while ago.

She felt very strange because of this, as though she had missed something important. There was, however, nothing strange about her surroundings. It was just quiet and dark. Well, not that quiet. She looked to the left where the faint snoring was coming from. The swordsman was sleeping in the same position, still.

When she thought about it, she was very tired. And that wasn't very strange. She hadn't slept for many hours since she had been on watch the night before and also a few occasional nights here and there before that. She had only her self to blame. After all, it was she who happily had volunteered to take the swordsman's shifts as well. It was Chopper who had decided that someone else had to do them. Partly because Zoro needed the time to rest and partly so that he didn't do any secret training up in the crow's nest.

Now the archaeologist felt a faint ache in her neck and understood that it was because her head had been leaned down when she was half asleep. She couldn't understand how the green haired man beside her could stand it when she was in pain after only what she assumed to be a few hours. Maybe he was sitting in a more ergonomic position then she was. It remained a mystery to the her.

She laid her book aside and rose to do a little stretching. She assumed that the others wasn't back yet because she hadn't heard any sound of them. This meant that it couldn't be that late after all. Or maybe her crewmates didn't intend to head back to the ship at all for to night. She guessed the time to be approximately 3 pm now that she could see the sky better. It was still coloured slightly purple at the horizon.

She would satisfy her needs and go to bed herself but first she wondered if she should wake the swordsman. He would sleep for long if someone didn't wake him but usually someone did. She looked to the harbor and saw that the guard for the ship seemed as alert as ever. Surely they wouldn't need someone to watch the Thousand Sunny for the night.

_Everyone deserves a good night sleep in a prober bed, _she thought and went over to her nakama.

"Kenshi-san, wake up," she said and shook his shoulder lightly.

He grunted and opened up one eye to look at the feet of who had disturbed him, "Hmm?"

This sort of sleeping seemed to be more alert other than when he was sleeping deeply in his bed. This pleased the raven haired woman, it was right of her to wake him after all. Especially since he needed plenty of rest to heal his wounds.

"Don't you want to go sleep in your bed instead?" Well, bed and bed, she thought. It was a hammock, still, but there he could relax to the fullest.

He opened both eyes and looked up to her, "Hmm, I guess."

The archaeologist bent down to gather the candle, book and both of the cups. Then she went off to leave the latter in the kitchen.

Zoro got up and did some stretching as well. He picked up his swords and settled them in their holdings at his right hip. He scratched the back of his neck while he yawned widely. It had been a good nap but he felt like it wasn't enough and the idea of sleeping in his hammock actually sounded great. His throat felt dry so he cleared it a few times but this only made him cough. His body practically cried out when doing so. _Better drink some water before going to bed, _he thought while pulling himself together again.

He wondered if the others were back yet or maybe they were still partying. He didn't know but on the other hand, he didn't really care. He was expecting Robin to be back on the deck in merely seconds after she had left to the kitchen but she didn't appear. Not that he really cared about what she was doing in there either but on the other hand, how long could it take to leave 2 cups at some table?

He would just check what the heck she was up to, and taking a glass of water was indeed the perfect excuse for going there anyway.

He walked up the stairs and then opened the kitchen door. The archaeologist was sitting at the couch alongside the wall. Her head was leaned down a little and a hand was holding the top of her head, as if she had ran her fingers through her hair and then stopped. She seemed a bit off and her narrow gaze was fastened on something he couldn't make out.

Zoro ignored her strange behavior and casually walked up to the kitchen counter. As the woman showed no reaction and didn't even flinch from her position he settled for a general question, "What are you doing?" he asked as he tapped up some water in a glass. He turned around to look at her.

It was as if someone had just woke her up and her confused gaze met Zoro's, "I'm..." She shook her head a little, "I'm just a bit tired, that's all."

"Hoo? Why don't you go sleep then?" He finished his glass and put it away.

"Yeah you're right, Kenshi-san." She stood up and started to walk to the exit and Zoro did the same thing.

As he was just behind her he saw her figure sink lower and lower before he could even realize that she was falling.

"Oi, Robin!"

He caught her just in time before she could hit the floor and turned her around so that her head was visible.

"Oi! Do you hear me?" he yelled and panic overwhelmed him just for a second. Then he looked at her closely and by seeing her chest rise regularly, he could confirm that she was out of danger. Had she fainted, or just fell asleep, he wondered. A bit relieved, anyway, he sighed and while still holding her, he wondered what he would do. It seemed that she was only suffering from exhausted but Chopper was on the ship after all.

He lifted her up bridal style and carefully carried her out of the kitchen, down from the stairs, over the lawn, up for the stairs and finally in to the women's quarters. It felt a bit strange because now when he thought about it, he had almost never actually been in there.

He laid her down on one of the two beds in the room. He once again checked that she was breathing and was otherwise okay before he left the room to go get the doctor.

As he was on his way to the men's quarters just downstairs he wondered if she would have anything against being checked. Not that he would care anyway, a sick person should visit a doctor, simple as that. He got an freaky expression for a second and dumbfounded himself slightly as he realized the double morality in what he just had thought about.

He slammed the door opened with the intention to make the little reindeer wake up. It succeeded pretty well.

"WHAT'S GOING ON, BASTARD! DON'T SCARE ME!" The doctor had immediately been up running back and forwards. Then he stopped to look at the person at the doorway, "Ah, Zoro! Oh, no! Do you feel alright?" He started to climb up and down on the swordsman, "Where does it hurt? You have trained haven't you! Zorooooooooo!"

"What the.. Get off!" He tried to drag the furry little doctor off from his face, "Oi, Chopper! Let me talk!"

The reindeer leaned away a little so that Zoro's mouth was free and looked at him.

"I want you to look at Robin. I think she's exhausted."

"Whaaaaat?! Oh no! Rooooobiiiiiiiin..!" his tiny voice was heard as he was already on his way to the women's quarters.

Zoro sighed and walked back. When he got there again, the doctor was already inspecting the sleeping woman.

"Oh, so it's not serious, I'm glad." He gave out a relieved sigh and smiled lightly to the swordsman, "If we just let her sleep she should be fine."

"Okay, so we can go to sleep now too?

"Yes, we don't have to worry a bit!" He almost laughed as he was about to leave the room. He stopped and looked up at the swordsman, "Ne, Zoro. Haven't the others returned yet?"

"No, they're probably still on it." A big yawn escaped his mouth.

"Hmm, okay, I hope they return soon. Good night, Zoro!" He left the room.

"Good night, Chopper."

The swordsman didn't know why he still found himself in the women's quarters. Maybe he was fascinated by the looks of it, after all, he had not been there many times. Yes, that had to be it.

He went over to where the black haired archaeologist was sleeping. He grabbed a cover and pulled it over her. It may be that only people with weak hearts catch colds, but now he felt like he had the right to consider her weak. A bit smug, he smiled as he glanced at her peaceful face.

At last he turned around and left the room. Now it was his turn to get some well deserved sleep.

* * *

Chopper opened his eyes. He was a bit tired still but somehow he could tell that he'd slept fairly long already. The sun was shining in through the window on his face, as if telling him to get up and enjoy another beautiful day of life.

He smiled and got out of his hammock. When hearing a faint snoring, he understood that the swordsman was still in deep sleep. The little doctor rubbed his eyes while letting out a small yawn. He looked around and a little weight left his shoulders and conscience. At least now he could tell that two more of his nakama were back safe and sound on the Sunny.

Franky snored loudly. Laying flat on his back and having his limbs spread out within equal distance between, he almost took the form of a star. Not far away from him laid Sanji in some sort of curled up form. He was hugging himself, as if there was someone else laying there as well. In his sleep he silently mumled, "Mellorine..." over and over.

The shipwright held two empty bottles of beer in each hand and one also was in the hand of the cook.

The swordsman laid on his stomach in his bed, arms along his body and one leg hanging down from the hammock. He looked as if he had partied just as much. Chopper sighed while gazing over his nakama, _better go and start making medicines for headache straight away_, he thought.

On his way to the medical room, he also could ensure the safety of three more nakamas. At the lawn, a big lump could be seen and the little reindeer could right away tell that it was the stomach of his captain. Leaned against the knocked out Luffy were also Brook and Usopp heavily sleeping.

"Good morning, Chopper!"

The doctor turned around to see the red haired navigator stepping out from the women's quarters, "Oh, hi Nami!"

"Look at these weaklings, ha Chopper?" Nami laughed, "Are you going to make medicines for them?"

"Yes." He giggled a little, "But I'm also going to see my patient."

"Okay, you do that while I go and wake Sanji up. He better start with breakfast soon, I'm pretty hungry, aren't you?" She smiled at the little doctor.

Chopper just nodded and smiled before he continued his way to the infirmary. His patient was still sleeping in the bed there. He decided not to wake her, although he saw that the clock was past 11 pm already. He figured that the woman could use more rest, however, so he quietly started to grin some herbs that he could use.

As Namo started dragging the cook out of the men's quarters he immediately woke up and formed his usual heart shaped eyes and spouted his usual flattering comments. No one else had awakened by the commotion and Nami felt a bit merciful today. She decided that they could sleep in some more.

Everyone except from her and Chopper had been sleeping so deeply this long, even Robin. When she had tried to wake her there simply was no response. So she had also let her sleep some more. However, the cook she was dragging behind her had a another thing coming to him. As they got out on the lawn she started to yell at him to begin with breakfast and pondered him with how this was unacceptable coming from a cook, to not be up in time cooking.

Sanji immediately took this to heart and prayed for her forgiveness. He promised to make up for it with the most delicious breakfast ever.

* * *

After a while, Nami went to wake everybody for breakfast. This time showing no mercy, even with Robin. Though, this time around the archaeologist had been rather easily waked.

The navigator continued to go wake the others in more or less cruel ways, especially those with a huge hangover. She simply kicked her captains face causing the disturbance to rashly wake up Usopp and Brook as well. Then she screamed at them, making Usopp and Brook to cover their ears.

"It huuurts! Ah, but I have no ears! Yo-ho-ho-ho!"

The navigator stared devilishly at the lot until they made their way to the kitchen.

Moving on to the men's quarters again, she screamed at the remaining shipwright and swordsman to wake up. Franky immediately made his way to the kitchen also, but Zoro just kept on snoring, not even turning around in his bed. Frustrated, Nami went to punch him down from his hammock. He grunted painfully as he landed on the floor and then, to the navigators fear, he started to cough violently.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Zoro! Your injuries! I forgot..!" She bent down beside him, having close to a horrified expression, realizing what she had just done.

Zoro saw her face and became alert about what had happened. He immediately forced himself to stop coughing, even though this pain was even worse than just that of the coughs. The punch she had gave him in the head wasn't especially comfortable either.

"It's all right," he lied but tried to sound casual. He stood up as to prove this to her. To his delight, she bought his act. Her horrified face was replaced by a relieved one and she smiled apologetically.

This was what he was fighting for. This was why he hadn't told them what exactly had happened at Thriller Bark. This was why he pretended to be fine. He wanted to protect his nakama from any sad faces.

"Is breakfast ready?" He asked to change the subject at hand.

She nodded and together they left to eat an unusually delicious breakfast.

* * *

_Now I see that the Sunny's mast is in fact not even "leanable"! XD I did a little research on how the Sunny is build and whaddya know, you can't lean against the mast because it has a bench around it. I'll be more careful in the future but now it's too late to change so I guess you just have to live with this xD *EDIT* CHANGED THIS SHIT. Hard to replace the mast with a friggin wall? -.- Oh, my former self. U so funny *EDIT*  
_

_Oh, and Robin being exhausted was BIIG surprise, wasn't it? And it was soo not obvious that she would appear so in front of Zoro when he just happened to want to have a glass of water XD I'm so predictable some times, really. But my imagination was running out and I thought that this first part was a little too calm. So I couldn't really help myself XD _

_Well, there wasn't much action here in one way and it was very little dialouges compared to the former chapters, I think. But hey, it turned out like it did. I'm happy to hear any complains :D_

_You think I'm overdoing the "xD"? Well, so do I xDDDDDddddöalsdsdpödfkvj D:  
_


	8. The Patient

**Chapter 8.**

**The patient**

A few hours has gone past since breakfast and the crew is relaxing on the ship. Chopper's medicine had worked very well and Nami's occasional unmerciful screams hadn't sound any different than usual.

Brook was sitting in the middle of the lawn and played his violin. The crew had again and again ensured him that there was nothing he could do to help today. After all, there was nothing even the rest of the crew could do anymore. Everything was already done and since they were docked to an island, nothing in particular needed some kind of maintenance.

The skeleton musician played many different songs and every now and then he stopped to tune his instrument a little. If he couldn't do anything helpful, than he could at least intensify the relaxing atmosphere even more and at the same time do something he liked.

It was a peaceful day at the Sunny. Everyone was just taking it easy and enjoyed their own activities. It sure had been a while since the Strawhats could've been this carefree. Of course, as higly wanted pirates they could never be totally eased but a little more than usual, at least.  
Even though the crew was free to do what they wanted, everybody still found themselves remaining on their lion headed ship. The weather was bright and warm in a comfortable way, the sun seemed to be careful not to overdo anything.

The relaxing music appeared to have an exceptional effect on one particular green haired nakama. The swordsman hadn't moved from his sleeping spot for quite some time now. He was laying on his back in the small grass, holding his swords in some sort of awkward grasp in his right hand.

Not far from him, the little doctor was sitting on the swing. He sometimes let out a small giggle while going back and forward.

Turning his gaze a little more to the right, the musician could see two beautiful women, also relaxing. The navigator was sunbathing and occasionally exchanged a few words with her raven haired nakama sitting next to her. She was, however, seated in a chair while reading a book. Every now and then she would take a zip of the cooling drink the cook had made for them.

Lacking anything else to do, Franky and Usopp both were down in their respective workshops inventing things.

Their captain was perhaps the only one who didn't quite enjoy all this relaxing. He would restlessly jump around on the ship and state how boring everyone was. Sometimes he walked up to Nami and informed her that he was bored. One time he had tried with Zoro but after getting no other response than a grunting, he continued nagging on the navigator.

"Luffy, can't you just sit still for one minute?" she tiredly complained the fifth time he tried.

"No, Nami! I want an adventure and you can't sit still when you want to have an adventure!" he anxiously answered.

"Perhaps we can have a picnic a little later on, ne, kōkaishi-san?" asked the archaeologist and smiled at both of her crewmates.

"Hmm, yeah, that actually sounds like a pretty good idea!" Nami happily replied, "Will that do, Luffy?"

"Yes! We're going to have an adventure! We're going to have meat, right?" He turned right away and headed for the kitchen, "Sanji! Prepare a lot's of-"

The sound of the infirmary door being slammed open cut the captain off, "Okay, where the HELL am I?!"

The doctor let out a small scream of surprise and fell down from the swing, landing on the swordsman's face. Zoro was immediately up wondering what was happening and tried to get free from the brown hairball blocking his sight.

"Dammit, Chopper! Get off me!"

Everybody else turned their gaze upwards and saw a green haired woman standing at the beginning of the stairs. Her red empty looking eyes filled with something the captain, musician, navigator and archaeologist couldn't decide to be either confusion or anger.

"Wait.. hey I remember you!" she said while looking at the raven haired woman. Her gaze suddenly changed to a more neutral one. She started to walk down the stairs, "And you!" she said while looking at the swordsman who had now released himself from the little doctors grip.

The little doctor was in mere seconds suddenly climbing up and down on the woman, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? HOW CAN YOU STAND UP!? YOU NEED TO REST YOUR FOOT MORE!"

"What the..!" She took Chopper with both her arms and held him in front of her, "Haha! What the hell are you? Tanuki..?"

"I'M A REINDEER!" he yelled as he angrily transformed into his heavy point.

The woman stepped away from Chopper a little and started to laugh hysterically.

Luffy watched the woman with an astonished face. Then he pointed at her and turned to the swordsman, "Zoro, is that your sister?"

"WHAT, NO!" the swordsman yelled angrily and grimaced at his captain.

"But you both have green-"

"That's not the same haircolour at all!" Nami had stepped up and punched him over the head, "Are you colour-blind or something?! Geez."

The woman had simply walked past Chopper while still laughing and was now standing before the rest of the crew on the lawn.

At the same time, Sanji, Usopp and Franky turned up to see what was going on.

"Hey, what are you-" started Franky but then he saw the person causing all the commotion, "Oi, nee-chan, wasn't your foot hurt?"

Sanji immediately formed his heart eyes and started do dance his way down the stairs as well, "Melloriiiiiiiiiiine!"

"Huh? My foot? I don't know, maybe it was. There was some annoying bandaging around it when I woke up," she answered the shipwright and shrugged.

"But how..?" started Usopp and made a confused face.

"Ha..?" she looked around to see that everybody had the same confused faces, "What?"

"Your foot is broken! It should be totally out of use!" yelled the doctor who had turned into his normally used brain point once again, "Now stand still! I have to examine you!"

"Oh! I always forget to tell people," she said, giggled and smacked herself in the head lightly. Then she turned to the little reindeer, "That's not necessary, whatever my foot have been through - to be honest, I don't remember, haha, but anyways - it will always heal up again. Fun ain't it?"

"That's so coooooooooool!" yelled the amazed Luffy while stars replaced his eyes.

"I know, right!" she answered the black haired captain while seeming to be just as much amazed by her own power.

"Kiwa-san," Robin said, "Do you mind explaining how this works?"

The woman turned back to the others, "Ok, but hey! Where's my swords?"

"Umm we kind of put them away..." said Nami unsurely.

"Soo ka? Well anyways, it doesn't matter. Hey you!" She pointed at Zoro, "You have swords, cut me somewhere."

"Haaaaa?!" The swordsman awkwardly stepped away a little.

"Yeah, just do it. Wherever you want," Kiwa said casually, "Or... don't cut any limbs off, okay?"

"What...No! Are you crazy?"

"I'll be fine! I promise! You don't have to do it that deep if you're too much of a pus- I mean... If you don't want to. It's just easier for me to explain this way."

"What was that?!"

"Oi, shitty marimo! Don't you dare even touch that woman!" yelled Sanji.

"Shut it, curly kokku! Why would I cut up someone for no reason!?"

"Oh, man what a pain..." Kiwa said to herself and sighed, "Why _am_ I even explaining this to you?"

While the two men were still arguing there was a green blur as Kiwa ran to unsheat and fetch Sandai Kitetsu and then back to stand at the same place as before.

"Hey you bitch, give me back my swo-!"

Zoro didn't finish the sentence but widened his eyes as he saw Kiwa forcefully showing the sword deeply into the left side of her stomach. She let out only a faint grunt of pain but didn't even hunch over.

"AAAAAAAAAHHH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Chopper screamed in panic, "SOMEONE CALL A DOCTOR!"

The others were stunned. Usopp screamed with his tongue rolling outside of his mouth.

"I thought it might been a little too much for you to push it out on the other side," Kiwa said casually and laughed, "Oh, there was no one sensitive I hope?"

No one said a word and appearing as if she hadn't even thought about her last words, Kiwa pulled the sword out again. It left a big wound with only a small sipper of blood coming out of it.

"Here, sorry for taking it but it seemed to like it at last." She threw the sword back to Zoro.

"You- you could tell?" the swordsman stumbled and shook his head to get the recent picture out of his head. He felt the up flowing satisfaction coming from Sandai Kitetsu.

"Well, of course, it might have wanted more than this puny amount." She wiped the small blood stream onto her finger and then brushed it off on her shorts, "But I could feel that is was up for the job," she laughed.

"Ar- are- are you gonna be alright with that!?" yelled the sniper and pointed at the wound, shivers still running through his body.

"Ha? Oh, yeah! Watch now! See? The cut's already smaller."

"What..? Sugoi..." Nami said astonished and watched closer.

"Yeah, isn't it?" Kiwa made a dumb looking grinning face, put her hand at her sides and laughed. "Surely, you know about devil fruits? I mean, you have a user right here." She pointed at Chopper, "I've eaten the 'ken ken no mi', I can recover very fast! I doesn't matter how deep the wound, I'll still recover up in no time!"

"That's so COOOOOOOOOOOL!" Luffy jumped up and down and his sparkling eyes barely followed him, "Are you like immortal!?"

"YES I AM! Wait.. no I'm not!" Kiwa laughed again, "It just takes a hell of a time killing me!"

Everybody relaxed a little more by now, and Nami was almost angry, grasping her fist she yelled, "In what way was that easier than just telling us!?"

"Haha! I don't really know," she answered and scratched the back of her head, "I guess I find it funny seeing how people will react!"

"But Kiwa-san, even though you have great recover abilities, you still feel pain, don't you?" asked Robin.

"You saw me tense a little, huh?"

"Yes, but it was still not even close too how a normal human would take it. Can it be that you've had your devil fruit power for very long?"

"Oi, what do you mean, Robin?" wondered the sniper.

"Oh, you're one hell of an inspector, aren't you?" Kiwa laughed and smiled, "You're absolutely right. I heard about the devil fruit when I was 6 years old. Then when I found one, I didn't doubt one second to eat it. Tasted like shit, though. Anyway, it is as I suspect you may already think, I've become careless because I lack fear from physical pain."

"And what does that mean, exactly?" grunted Zoro.

"Eh? And you wouldn't know?!" yelled Nami.

"Shut up, woman!"

"Oi bastard! Don't speak to Nami-san like that, or do you want me to kick your sorry ass?"

"Yeah, if you can stop hypnotizing me with that stupid eyebrow of yours!"

"What did you say? Now I'm pissed!"

"Bring it on, frea-!"

"Shut up!" The navigator punched them both to the ground, "I'm getting so tired of that!"

Kiwa only laughed about the situation, "Man, you guys are hilarious!" Then she pulled herself together again, "Okay, so it means that every normal human is afraid of getting hurt. It's like a defensive mechanism built in our system for preventing us to get hurt physically and it makes us feel pain in order to tell us what we should avoid. It's pretty much what prevents us from dying. I, however, haven't had any use of that mechanism because of my ability, and also knowing that mentally, I have learned to ignore pain to this degree. Understand?"

"Soo ka," said Luffy and hit his right clenched hand in his other opened one, "So you ARE a mystery person!"

"That is quite interesting, Kiwa-san," said the archaeologist, "You must have endured a lot to come to that point where you don't even notice that your foot is snapped in two."

"Yo-ho-ho-ho! That's pretty amazing, Kiwa-san!"

"Yeah, I've been through a lot, even though I haven't been to sea for so long yet."

"So, you're a pirate, huh, nee-chan?" asked Franky.

"Yes! I just became one!"

* * *

_Not much to say! I was pretty unhappy with the former chapter so I sort of worked a little more at this one. However, I don't really know if I'm happy with this chapter either xD_

_The name of the Devil Fruit, "ken ken no mi", I don't know if it suits very well but anyway, it means like "strength" or "health" and it sounded short and nice xD_

_Review please :) Even the smallest misspelling is worth to report, I want to learn! ^^_


	9. Calm

**Chapter 9.**

**Calm**

"So you don't even have a hangover?" asked Nami their green haired visitor.

"No! Or... I don't really know how it feels but I've heard it's like a heavy headache and sometimes you can feel ill... But I don't really know how that feels either, haha."

"What? You have never been ill in some way at all?" asked the sniper with an astonished expression.

"Not that I can recall. I don't really remember how it was when I was little. Maybe I was-"

The red eyed woman was cut off by a loud rumble coming from her stomach. She looked at it, tapped it and laughed.

"Oh, you must be hungry Kiwa-san!" said the cook and grinned, "I'll go prepare some food right away!"

"Sanji, make some for me too! I'm very hungry!" yelled the captain after the blond man who was on his way to the kitchen.

"Oh, is that okay? I'm not asking for too much am I? I don't want to be troublesome," said Kiwa and looked around at the people standing before her, not quite knowing who she was supposed to ask.

"Yeah, it's okay," said the navigator while smiling, then she sighed and turned to look at her drooling captain, "The one who should be in charge have already decided, anyway."

"Of course it's okay! Everyone who is hungry should just eat!" yelled the captain and the drool from his mouth slowly trickled down on the grass of the lawn.

"Yeah, I totally agree!" said Kiwa and laughed, "Do you have like meat of the biggest kind of sea-king? It's so delicious! Oh, I want it! Do you have it?"

"OI!" everybody yelled at once and the navigator slapped her over the head.

* * *

A while later, Nami decided that everyone needed time to let the recent events sink in. Therefore she ordered the crew to just go do whatever they were doing before the commotion. The navigator, however, was not in the mood for sunbathing anymore and instead went to draw on her maps.

Luffy and Kiwa went to the kitchen to await their food in company of Brook and Chopper. The sniper and shipwright had obviously gotten themselves into some interesting inventions and so they returned to their workshops.

The archaeologist had went to make herself a cup of coffee and then headed down the stairs back to her seat. However, seeing as the swordsman surprisingly not was sleeping but was standing against the rail, his back against her, she decided to walk over there instead.

Zoro knew before the person could even make a second step on to the lawn who it was and where the woman was heading. It was only confirmed by the scent of flowers and coffee that reached him as she came closer. Why was it that he had a feeling before that she would want to talk to him? His expression turned to a slightly annoyed one as he realized that he himself had given her the opportunity anyway.

The raven haired woman went to stand beside him, bending down while leaning her elbows on the rail, holding the cup in both her hands outwards. Her gaze was set on the blue horizon.

The same went for the swordsman who didn't give any sort of response for the company of Nico Robin. In the corner of his eye he could see the woman take a zip of the beverage.

She was quiet a while again before turning to inspect the expression of her green haired nakama, not surprised by it being as natural as ever. Surprisingly enough, though, the swordsman turns to meet her gaze.

"You will join our picnic a little later on, right, Kenshi-san?" she asked and smiled lightly.

"Yeah, I guess," Zoro replied as he turned his gaze back to where it was before.

Robin took another zip from her cup, "Thank you for yesterday."

Zoro had thought that the woman wouldn't remember a thing, "For what? I didn't really do anything."

"But you did. You carried me to bed and even got isha-san to have a look at me."

"Anybody would have done that, just as you would have thanked anyone."

"Hmm, so it's all just formalities then?" The woman chuckled slightly and their gaze met again.

"Yeah, that's right." The swordsman then smiled smugly and added, "You should not strain yourself, Robin," Making her eat her own words from before.

The archaeologist bursted into laughter and Zoro watched her do so. To laugh like this was something his raven haired nakama rarely did. Yet had she been doing it much more often after Enies Lobby.

"You're right," she said. "I'll be more careful in the future."

"Why have only you been doing my night watches and not anybody else?" he asked.

Robin could tell that he was a bit confused by this, "I kind of volunteered to. Besides, I don't mind."

The swordsman crossed his arms and turned slightly to her, "No, but your body obviously does."

"That's quite ironical, coming from you."

"Man, why are you still nagging on me about that? I'm fine."

Of course, the archaeologist knew that he wasn't but she was probably the only one bringing it up like this with him. Sure, Chopper was nagging on him about it often as well but that was because he was a doctor. It's his duty to prevent his patient from doing things that might be bad for the health. Neither did he knew about what really had happened to Zoro. The cook knew, however, but Robin couldn't imagine that he would talk with the swordsman about his health. Surely the swordsman hadn't noticed that the food had been especially healthy recently. Certainly because it didn't taste any different than usual. Robin doubted that Sanji even wanted him to know that he cared.

"If you're fine, then why do you get so upset every time I mention something about your health?"

The swordsman flinched and a tint of recognition consumed his face. Robin could see that he tried to restrain himself and as a result of the struggle; he let out a deep sigh, "I'm not getting upset. It just annoys me that you think that I'm weak."

"I don't recall ever consider you weak, Kenshi-san." She also turned to face her company a little more straight on. She put her arms crossed in a way as well, though one hand still held the cup, "Why are you pretending? Everyone saw in what sort of condition you were in. You even slept for three days after. Surely no one would blame you for being in pain, don't you agree?"

"Look, just trust me. I've been through far worse before you even knew me. I'm fine, okay?" He gave her a rough smile, hoping that it would make her give up on the subject.

Annoyingly, the woman just took another zip of her coffee while looking at him, analyzing him.

"And you don't need to do my night watch anymore," he added and his smile fainted away.

"Hmm... but Seni-san still thinks you need more rest."

"Yeah, but I don't. We'll be stuck on this island for a few more days, so after that it should be fine."

Robin chuckled. She was convinced. Even though she knew the truth about Kuma and even though she may had thought different yesterday. That the swordsman was willing to hide it this much from the crew proved that he would survive, that he would make it, that he at least could bare with it for now. That could calm Robin if only a little.

She started to walk back to her seat but after a few steps she turned her head back to her green haired nakama, smiled and said, "I'm not worried about you."

Leaving a quite stunned swordsman, the archaeologist went to settle down in her chair, whereupon she opened up "To Perfect The Use Of The Devil Fruit" and began to read.

Zoro turned around to his starting position, back against her. Zoro noted, maybe not for the first time, that he needed to be careful of Nico Robin.

_Damn, woman. I'm the only one who should know how to hit my pressure points..._

Yet, the swordsman had a hard time restraining a very annoying smirk growing on his lips.

* * *

Sanji, Chopper and Brook watched the two people sitting at the end of the table. The cook tried for a long time but he couldn't simply see anything cute or beautiful in the way their green haired visitor ate. That wasn't very strange considering the fact that he had never seen anything cute in the way his captain ate either.

Kiwa and Luffy had scoffed down the first round of snack in merely seconds. Of course, the cook had counted on that his captain could eat to no end but never could he had thought that Kiwa could as well.

When both of them screamed "More!", Sanji just hurried to do as much again.

"Here you go Kiwa-san!" he said and put the big plate with appetizers on the table.

"Mm, it looks so yummy!" both Kiwa and Luffy yelled as they grabbed one half of it each and once again ate it in merely seconds.

"How can you taste the food like that!" yelled the others in protest.

Luffy and Kiwa laughed.

"Mmmm, that was very good!" said the green haired woman while tapping her stomach.

"Yeah, Sanji is the best cook!"

Both of them let out a relieved sigh and leaned back in their chairs. There was a little pause before they yelled out "More!" once again.

* * *

A while later, the ships navigator were still resided in the library. She had only recently finished drawing a map and stretched her arms up while leaning back in her chair. She took the map and held it in front of her. She smiled. Drawing water 7 had been quite troublesome since she didn't have all the measures, but in the end, the result turned out to be satisfying.

Nami decided it was time for a cooling drink. Even though the season was summer, it was pretty hot for being a fall island.

She headed for the kitchen but when she was almost there, she stopped as she heard laughs and the familiar tones of "Bink's sake". The navigator leaned over the rail to look down at the lawn.

Everybody were sitting almost in some sort of ring, talking and laughing. Except Usopp and Chopper who were currently up doing different dances and acted like entertainment. Luffy, Sanji and Franky were cheering them on and Brook was playing the violin while Zoro and Robin was sitting slightly further away but with just as happy faces.

Nami smiled at the scene but then she remembered something. Where was their visitor? Had she already left? The navigator searched over the lawn again but couldn't find her. She did, however, find that everybody was holding what she longed for.

Suddenly, her sight was blocked as her wanted beverage was held in front of her.

"Blondie figured you might want one of these so I offered to go deliver it to you."

Nami turned around to look into a pair of red eyes. They were empty looking, as if one part of her wasn't present in this world. Yet they showed kindness and went well with the smile on her face.

"But now you're already here so... here!" she continued on as she grinned and held out the glass for the navigator to take.

"Thanks!" said Nami and received the drink. She immediately took a zip of it and then let out a sigh of refreshment, "That's exactly what I needed!"

Kiwa laughed, "Yeah, me too!" whereupon she also took a zip from her own glass.

They both leaned against the rail to watch the others down at the lawn.

"Your crew is so amazing. It's nothing like the ones I've ever seen before."

"Soo ka? What exactly do you mean?"

"Well, I've only been with you guys for a couple of hours but I can still feel the respect you all hold for each other. Also, you don't have some kind of dictatorship where there's one ruler. You treat each other as equals."

"Oh? Well, I guess it is like that. We have all or own dreams and goals to follow but we still fight together for each other." Nami laughed and gazed down over her crewmates, "Maybe it is pretty rare."

"Someday, I want to get a crew like this on my own." Kiwa looked at the navigator, "I would very much like to get to know you guys a little more but if I'm too much of a burden, I will happily leave."

"Oh, not at all! It's alright. You can stay with us for the remaining days it takes for the log to set. Now, you probably don't know the names of everyone yet, right?"

Kiwa laughed, "No, I don't. I'm pretty good at remembering names, though."

"The little reindeer is our doctor, Chopper. The guy dancing with him, the long nose, is Usopp. He wants to become a great warrior, a giant, or something like that... Hmm, Brook is playing the violin, the skeleton. His dream is to reunite with an old friend."

"Hmm okay, Hopper, Danny.."

Nami smacked the back of the green haired womans head, "You're not good at remembering at all!"

"... and then there was Brook... A skeleton playing a violin..." Kiwa narrowed her eyes and paused for a minute as she looked suspiciously at Nami. Then she looked at Brook, "HOLY CRAP, HE'S A LIVING SKELETON!"

"You're slow!" Nami sighed, "Anyway, the cook is Sanji. He wants to find All Blue. The huge guy sitting beside him is Franky, he's half a cyborg and he built this ship. Our captain is the dumb-looking strawhat boy, he's going to be the Pirate King."

"Oh, that's a pretty big goal! What about those two? I think the woman introduced herself as... hmm, was it.. Claire..?"

"No, that's completely wrong. She's Robin and she's an archaeologist. The green haired idiot beside her is Zoro and he always has debts to pay me. He is a swordsman and is going to be the best."

"Hmm, that's a pretty big goal as well. What about you?"

"Oh, I'm Nami. I want to draw a map of the world!" The navigator grinned, "So, anyway, if you're staying with us for a while, then you will join our picnic today?"

"You bet I will! Now, let's get down there! It looks fun!" said Kiwa and dragged Nami with her down to the others at the lawn.

* * *

_Sorry for taking so long to update. My only excuse is that I simply was out of ideas in how to structure this chapter. And whaddya get? A super super bad chapter XD NOT happy with it. Anyway, the next chapter is going to be a bit better I hope._

_I'm feeling rather dumb not getting what Animehost mentioned in her/his review until just recently. I had to actually accidentally hear that it should be "Seni-san" rather than "Isha-san" that Robin is calling Chopper.  
I'm very determinate not to change anything in the story once it's uploaded, exclude some minor misspellings. But this I can't really count as a misspelling and I think it only will cause confusion to change all "Isha" to "Seni". So I won't change it in future chapters either but I will definitely do so and also be more careful in future stories ^^_

_Another thingy; it should be Fall island instead of Autumn island *stupid*. Anyway, I do the same here and won't change it in this story. ***EDIT* SCREW THIS, I'M CHANGING IT ALL! IDIOT PAST-ME! *EDIT***  
_

_Have a great one till next time ^^_


	10. Adventure

**Chapter 10.**

**Adventure**

"Okay, is everybody here?" yelled the navigator and looked over the people in front of her.

Closest to her were Chopper who today wore green bathing shorts with a flower pattern, "I'm here!" He carried a little backpack which contained some playthings for the Strawhats to enjoy.

Next to the doctor stood the swordsman.

"Oh, Zoro! You've changed your clothes again! I'm surprised!" said Nami and grinned.

"Shut up! Did you expect me to go swimming in my other clothes, or what?"

"Oh, so you _are _swimming after all? That's so nice Zoro, really, I thought you didn't want to. By the way, you should wear those shorts more often, they suit you. Really, they do." The navigator nodded exaggeratedly many times at the swordsman and while at it, she stuck her tongue out.

The green-haired nakama snorted, "And maybe you should wear something quieter..."

"But I was so surprised, Zoro! Ordinary, long, black shorts and flip flops. I would never had thought you had such a taste for fashion! It's so.. different... so rebellious!"

"Well, yeah, but I got do admit, I really _do_ look good in whatever I wear." He rubbed his fist smugly over his white tank top at his chest, raised his head, closed his eyes and smirked.

Some laughed, some smiled, some snorted and one just chuckled.

Nami grinned and continued, "Anyway, Sanji-kun, do we have all the food with us?"

"Hai, Nami-swaan! Everything is packed up!"

"Okay. Then listen up everybody! As you already know, Robin found a suitable beach for us yesterday. We're heading there to have our picnic. It's a pretty long walk but nothing we can't handle!"

"Wow, this is great! It's been too long since we've been to a beach. I'm gonna swim till my limbs go numb!" yelled their excited sniper.

"I have the beach ball!" yelled a just as excited Franky.

"I can't wait to go swimming with Nami-swaaan!"

"I'm pretty excited myself!" said Nami and laughed, "Let's go!"

The navigator, sniper, swordsman, cook and shipwright all happily picked up a fast pace for some direction.

"Wait..." Nami stopped, "Yes, that's right. We don't know the way." She turned, "Robin, you need to lead the- eh...?"

The archaeologist was turned away, her arms crossed as she still were standing at the starting spot together with the remaining others. Chopper and Brook was standing beside her, heads bent down of disappointment.

Luffy and Kiwa were both down standing on all fours, fists constantly slamming the ground while occasional mumbles came from their down leaned heads.

"The ocean... hates us..."

"Can't swim..."

"I want to play... with the beach ball..!"

A dark area was surrounding them all as their depression remained. The others sweat dropped.

"Enough!" yelled the navigator, "You're all acting like you've been hit by one of those negative ghosts! Robin, you must lead the way! And the rest of you, if you don't come now you all can be without food!"

There was a clicking as if something obvious finally reached the brains of Luffy and Kiwa. They were in only matter of seconds walking besides the others, talking like nothing had ever happened. Robin, Chopper and Brook quietly started to walk after them.

"It's fine, Chopper!" yelled the Sniper, "I have plenty of bathing-mattresses for all of us."

"You have?" Chopper lit up.

"Yes, of course I have! Did I ever tell you about the time when I fought off 2 seakings only sailing on a bathing mattress?"

"No! That's so cool, Usopp!" Star replaced the little reindeer's eyes.

"Yes, I was only 8 years old but defeated them with only one punch!"

"Ne, Robin, why are we heading for the town? Aren't we going to have an adventure?" asked a confused captain.

"Don't worry sencho-san, through town is the fastest way to the beach. Then we have to cross a small forest."

"Yay! Adventure! Adventure!"

"Ch-chot-chotto! What if there is monsters on the island!" yelled the sniper nervously.

"You know, you can stay back on the ship alone if you're afraid, Usopp," said Sanji while lightening his cigarette.

"As-As if! There's no way that I'm staying alone- I mean, there's no way I'm afraid of some monsters! Bring it on! All of them!"

"Then shut your trap and let go of me!" said an irritated swordsman.

"If a monster comes, I'll be your first backup Zoro. Now keep going forward!"

Kiwa laughed, "So you're like afraid of everything?" she asked the long-nosed man.

"Shaddaaap! I'm not like you, I feel physical pain!"

"Hey, I feel pain too!"

"Yeah, right. Oh, hey, look! A flying cat in the sky!" The sniper pointed up and took the opportunity to pinch Kiwa real hard in her side.

"...Where?!"

"You don't feel pain at all!"

The party walked through the town without gaining any special attention. Most people were exactly like before, drunk while in a laughing mood.

Luffy was walking beside Robin who had the lead. He was eager for his adventure, though it had already started. The swordsman was walking slightly after them in silence.

The navigator was walking in the lead of the group which was slightly after the others. The cook was dancing after her with his usual heart-shaped eyes. Kiwa laughed at him and Usopp had a hard time to not laugh with her.

Chopper, Franky and Brook were last. The musician couldn't hold back because of everybody's great mood. He began to play happy songs with his violin and soon grew very popular by the citizens. Some of them followed a bit while dancing and many of them followed the crew and offered them sake or to come and drink in the bar.

The swordsman was very happy about the thought of alcohol and were about to follow one of them but Luffy wouldn't let him and dragged him back. If everybody weren't there then he could not enjoy his adventure to the fullest.

When they had walked out from the town a bit, a few drunks hadn't realized that they were not were they were supposed to be anymore and turned back.

"This is so beautiful!" said the navigator while looking around to see how far the meadow reached.

"The colours are great!" said an astonished little reindeer.

"It's just a meadow..." mumbled the swordsman.

The archaeologist chuckled, "But you got to admit, Kenshi-san, it is pretty glorious."

Her green-haired nakama just shrugged, "I've already seen it."

"Ne, Robin, which way are we going now?" wondered the captain, excitement in his voice.

"We're going through the forest over there," she answered and pointed out the location.

The forest was rather hilly but the Strawhats had chosen a path pretty easy to walk on. After ten minutes of walking, laughing, talking, some complaining, and even tree-climbing done by Luffy, the group still was in the forest.

Robin was still in the lead while Nami was walking with her, chatting. Zoro and Luffy was walking after them. The black-haired captain had found a little round stone which he was tossing up and down in his right hand while he whistled. Then he had an idea and picked up many rocks whereupon he offered some to the swordsman. Out of boredom they then threw them in order to see which one of them that could throw the furthest.

The rest of the crew was not far behind the others and were casually chitchatting as well.

"Oh, I know this game we can do!" said Kiwa. "Say like an... hmm, an animal, Chopper-san!"

"Eh? Okay, uhm, reindeer?" he answered and smiled, interested.

"Okay, reindeer ends with an 'r', so that means that the next person must say an animal that starts with an 'r'. Hey, longenose, you answer!"

"What? Hmm... say, rhino?"

"Octopus," said Sanji.

"Let's see... sunburned dolphin!" said Kiwa.

"Oi, wait a little, does that really count?" asked the sniper.

"Haha! That's silly, Kiwa!" yelled the captain and turned his head back,"That's not an animal!" Whereupon a big argument burst out.

"So, cook. Have you noticed yet?" said Zoro and also looked back.

Sanji stopped arguing and turned to the swordsman, "Noticed what?"

"Didn't thought so. Not even you Chopper? Try sniffing over there." Whereupon he threw a rock to the group's left.

"Huh? Oh, alright," said the little doctor and did what his nakama said, "Eh! I smell people only about 100 meters away from here."

"Don't freak, it's probably only small fry. They have either been stalking us or maybe they simply aren't aware of our presence and just happens to head the same way. Considering our whereabouts, though, I'm guessing we're being followed."

"You are right Kenshi-san. It's the marines," said the archaeologist.

"The marines?! Why are they here?" said the navigator, looking confused.

"Why are they following us?" wondered Franky.

"It's only three of them, I checked. They don't seem to be very strong either. They began to run away just now," said Robin and shrugged, "I can't understand why they would send so few of them if they were after us."

"Maybe just to spy on us," suggested Sanji and shrugged as well.

"Maybe, but it still doesn't make sense. Even spying is a big risk for them. They don't know what abilities a crew may have. They could easily get spotted."

"That's right," said the swordsman, "Look, we discovered them already and if we wanted to, we could just end their life's here and now. It should be considered too risky just sending that few."

"Should we go kick their asses then?" said the cook and grinned, "We can squeeze the information out of them."

"Yeah, why not?" said Zoro and grinned as well.

"Where did Luffy-kun and Kiwa-san go?" Said Brook just when the two teens were about to take off.

Suddenly there was screams coming from behind the hill everyone was already looking at.

"Man, what is it with those two!" yelled Nami and sighed.

"Shitheads! Taking all the fun!" groaned Zoro and sheathed his swords again.

"Oh no! Hope they didn't-" started the cook as they all ran over to the marines whereabouts.

When they reached their destination, all everyone could do was to let out a deep sigh.

"You idiots!" yelled the navigator, "How can we question them if they're all unconscious or dead?!"

"Don't worry!" yelled Kiwa and picked up one of the beaten marines by the collar, "This one is still awake!"

"He is?" said Luffy and walked over to her. Then he grabbed the man she was holding by his arms and shook him violently while roaring at him, "Now tell me why you were following us, bastard!"

"OI!" yelled the others.

"I should beat you to a pulp!" Nami went and kicked the captain away, "Look of what you did! _Now_ he's unconscious!"

"Oh?" Luffy and Kiwa walked to the others again, "Nma, it's not important anyway. If they come again, I'll just beat them up!"

"That's not the point," Nami sighed again, "Anyway, they don't seem to be waking up anytime soon so let's just head for the beach. I haven't walked all this way for nothing."

"Oh, the view's a lot better up here! I can see the beach!" yelled the sniper.

"Yes, finally!" yelled Luffy and began to ran there together with Usopp, Chopper and Kiwa.

"I guess they agree with me," said Nami and shrugged. Then she and the others also ran, "Hey wait for us!"

* * *

_So... "Nothing but the Truth" told me that Robin actually stops calling the crew by their nicknames after the CP9 arc. I had no idea :o I actually saw the anime first but I kinda rushed through it cause I was eager to see more. I didn't understand their language and expressions very good back then either. Now I'm reading the manga but am yet to find out if this is true. However, the translations in the manga is very irritating so I don't know what I can trust._

_So... I'm not really sure if Franky can swim. Or wait, he did swim while in Enies Lobby, right? But technically, you'd think that he would sink, he's half a gath damn cyborg for crying out loud! Well, it's not like the first unexplainable thing in One Piece so, he can just swim on, at least in my story xD_

_So... this whole chapter was all general and stuff but there's got to be a little of that too sometimes!  
_

_Tell me what you think!  
_


	11. The Picnic

**Chapter 11.**

**The Picnic**

"Wow! A whole beach for ourselves!" yelled the sniper when they all had ran out of the forest and now were inspecting their surroundings.

The beach itself wasn't very wide and it seemed to reach about 2 km to the sides. There weren't much space between the forest and the water but yet enough to actually make it worthy of being called a "beach". The white sand on the ground was soft and fine-grained, noticed the archaeologist as she had gladly taken off her shoes as fast as she had reached their destination. The water was dark and deep but anyhow calm, there wasn't a wave in sight on the vast ocean before them. As a matter of fact, the only thing that really disturbed the calm picture of a spotless ocean was a few white rocks occasionally spread out.

"It's totally empty! We can do whatever we want!" yelled Kiwa and together with Usopp, Chopper and Luffy they began to ridiculously cheer and dance around.

"Hmm, I wonder why we are the only ones here," said the navigator and looked around, "The weather's nice and the water looks peaceful."

The archaeologist walked up to her and chuckled only slightly, "Perhaps we're the only ones that are sober enough."

"Haha, yeah, that's probably it."

Everybody laid their packings against a tree that stood out a little more from the forest. The cock and navigator started to prepare the food while Franky laid down a big blanket on the ground. He had found a place that wasn't that grumpy and when he was finished, the captain stepped in on it, his eyes filled with triumph.

"Yosh! This is our main base!"

"We're not going anywhere else, idiot," grunted the swordsman while he scratched the back of his head. Then he went to place his swords leaned against the side of the tree which wasn't already occupied with packings.

As soon as all the food was laid out for the Devil Fruit users to snack on, Sanji took of his T-shirt and yelled, "Now let's swim!" Then he started to run against the water.

"Yeah!" yelled the navigator and also undressed her t-shirt and shorts.

The cook immediately stopped and turned to look at her, "Melloriiiiine!" Nothing new concerning his dear Nami-san could slip past the cook's eyes, today was no exception, so Sanji couldn't help to thoroughly inspect the new blue fabric which functioned as her bikini.

"Oh, Zoro!" cried the little doctor, concern in his voice, concern in his expression. He turned to the swordsman, "Don't swim! It's bad for your wounds!"

"Che! Swimming's practically physiotherapy! It'll be fine. I won't swim for long, okay?"

"But-!"

Nami laid a hand on the doctors shoulder, shook her head and sighed a little, "It's no use, Chopper. He won't listen."

The swordsman, sniper and shipwright also removed their upper clothing and together with Nami and Sanji, they all ran to the water. They rushed out a short bit and then all dived in. It took a while before one after another came to the surface again.

"Ah, the water's nice!" said Zoro and looked at the others who just stood in silence for a while and stared at him.

Then suddenly they all cried out, "IT'S TOO COLD!" and ran into shore again.

"You bunch of wimps!" Zoro yelled after them. Cold? Even if he was used to swim in midwinter, he could feel that the water wasn't that cold. Maybe it wasn't what you would have expected from a vacation resort but the swordsman was pretty sure that his crewmates was just exaggerating. He snorted, at least he would enjoy the water himself for a couple of minutes more and therefore he dived in again.

On safe land, joining the Devil Fruit users on the picnic-blanket, were the others hiding under their own towels. They all seemed to be shivering but the cook suddenly stopped, just as if his mind only now had told him that it wasn't cold anymore and that the lady beside him needed the warmth of his body, so after forming heart-shaped eyes, he happily yelled, "Nami-san, let me rub you warm!"

"I don't need it!" she roared in answer. Chopper's fur flew straight up from the goose bumps on his body as he witnessed the devilish look on the navigators face. He considered to run and hide behind someone strong when he saw that Nami angrily clenched her fist underneath the towel.

"Geez, what is it with this Island! The weather is warm but the water isn't?"

"Perhaps, the weather turned good just as we came here and the sun haven't warmed the water sufficiently yet," suggested the archaeologist while calmly preparing a cup of coffee for herself.

"Maybe, but the weather's been nice before we arrived too, though, this is the Grand Line after all. Sometimes I just wish it could be like normal navigating."

"Bvhu bwhat oudnent bwe ahs bhun!" mumbled Luffy through his mouth stuffed with food once again.

"Can you cut that out!" shouted the cook and looked around for something to throw at his captain since he couldn't reach him from where he was seated.

* * *

About 10 minutes later, Chopper stood at the edge of the water and shouted out to the swordsman, "Zoro! Don't swim anymore, your wounds can get infected!"

"Geez, I'm not just gonna drop dead or something," he answered and rolled his eyes. Then he unwillingly started to swim back to the shore.

Suddenly, the swordsman could feel that something big was approaching him from behind. He heard screams from the beach but didn't have time to turn around before his sight turned dark as a pair of jaws enclosed around him.

There were even more screams and gasps coming from the shore as the others watched their green-haired nakama get devoured by the giant creature.

"ZOROOOO!" cried the little reindeer.

Only the creature's head, neck and a little of it's back was visible above the surface. It's head looked like that of a lizard's, having evil looking black and blank eyes. The creature itself was coloured in a more grayish kind of black and it's skin looked hard. One row of red, slightly bended spikes was set from between the nostrils continuing back over it's head, neck, back and probably also it's tail while being biggest on it's upper back.

"Zoro! No way!" yelled the navigator, "It just came from nowhere!"

"What are we gonna do!?" cried the doctor and sniper in sync, both having their hands on the sides of their head, "What if that thing swallowed him!?"

"He'll probably be digested and die," said the archaeologist casually.

"Stop saying such scary things, Robin!" yelled Nami.

"Oi, can he get out of there? Isn't he pretty messed up already?" wondered Franky and lifted his sunglasses.

The giant lizard moved towards the shore and it's body became more and more visible. It also appeared to be higher and higher as it walked closer.

"That idiot!" growled the cook and ran towards the water, "We need to save his sorry ass!"

"Yo-ho-ho, I'll help you, Sanji-kun!" said Brook and ran after him.

Suddenly they stopped as there seemed to be some disturbance in the mouth of the lizard. It let out a heavy hissing and turned around it's head in confusion. Apparently tired of the ruckus, the lizard took a stance and then spitted out the figure causing it.

Zoro was sent flying all the way to the beach and landed with with a big crash, scattering sand everywhere.

"ZOROOOO!" Chopper ran over to his green-haired nakama.

"Is he alright?" yelled Nami as she ran over there as well.

She didn't need an answer. The swordsman was already on his way up.

"That... bastard..." he snarled between heavy coughs.

"Are you alright, Zoro!?" cried the little reindeer as he panicky climbed up and down on the swordsman while inspecting him thoroughly. Then he climbed down and sighed by relief, "Good, you don't seem to be suffering from any more injuries than before..."

"I'm fine," grunted Zoro and coughed for a last time, "What the hell is that thing?"

The lizard moved faster and faster against the shore. As it came closer it started to hiss furiously.

The sniper's legs started to shake and his expression was terrified, "Wh-what do-does it want? It's coming here!"

"Was it attracted by the scent of the food?" wondered Franky and scratched the side of his head with a finger.

"Holy shit, how can that thing move so fast!?" yelled Kiwa and ran a few steps forward so that she could get a better view of the lizard. She stood with her hands clasped together and her eyes showed nothing else than amusement, "It's so cool!"

"What! It's after the food!? I'll beat it up!" yelled Luffy and ran past Kiwa and stretched one of his arms backwards, "Gomu Gomu no... Pistol!"

"What!?"

The lizard had stopped the impact by swinging Luffy's arm down with it's own frontal paw and continued to rush forward. It passed the stunned captain but then suddenly it stopped before Kiwa and bared a row of orange fangs.

It snarled and hissed before her but the green-haired woman just stood there, no longer amazed by it. Instead she tilted her head at one side and gazed at it recalcitranty, "What are you doing? Are you stupid?"

The lizard roared and raised a paw before throwing it at her. Kiwa jumped back and then unsheathed her short swords, "Bastard, I'll cut you up!"

"It's after Kiwa-san!" cried the musician but before even he or the green-haired woman could do anything there was a blur as the cock ran to stand before the beast.

"How dare you try to hurt a woman!?" Sanji jumped up to kick the lizard over the head. It roared furiously as it rose from the ground again but it never had the chance to fully recover it's stance as the black-haired captain were already rushing against it.

"Gomu Gomu no... Bazooka!" he yelled before the impact sent the lizard flying back into the ocean again.

"D-d-did it go away!?" cried the sniper from where he now was standing behind a tree in the forest.

"What the hell was up with that thing?" growled Sanji and brushed some sand of his shorts, "Kiwa-san, are you alright?"

"Me? Of course I'm alright! Shouldn't you rather be asking him that?" answered Kiwa and pointed a thumb at the swordsman.

"Huh? The shitty marimo? I don't care about him."

"Well, anyway, let's just eat!" said the grinning captain and held his arms up in the air while walking back to the blanket.

Meanwhile, Zoro, Nami and Chopper also came back and everybody started taking their seats once again.

"And you see, Chopper, if I only wanted to, I could've just released my hidden powers and knocked that thing unconscious by just pointing at it!"

"Really, Usopp?!" The amused little reindeer seated a few seats from him looked up at the prideful Sniper, "Why didn't you?"

"Ehm.. that's because I.. Because I thought these guys needed more training!" He crossed his arms, closed his eyes and nodded determinately, "As their personal coach, it would be unfair to interrupt this perfect opportunity."

The cook started to deal out the food and drinks to everyone who didn't already had some.

"Cho bher ba ou chrom?" asked Luffy, while looking at the green-haired woman, seemingly interested. He didn't look at the food he now was constantly shoving into his mouth.

"Bam chromp Bouwt Bou! Bher ba ou bais chromp?" she answered while doing exactly the same thing as Luffy.

"Cho bka! Be, Chowo, Bjami, Uboppue band Chandi ba walb chrom Beast Bou! Bwhe phounb bje douhejb bere ab bje Bjandu Rine!"

"Stop talking like that! We don't understand!" yelled the others.

Luffy and Kiwa swallowed their food and let out a relieved sigh.

"Luffy asked where I'm from and I told him 'South Blue' and then I asked him where you guys were from whereupon he answered that he himself, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji were from East Blue and that you had found the remaining others here at the Grand Line."

"We don't care!"

"By the way, Marimo-head, it seems that the lizard swallowed your bandages," said the cook while walking around serving food.

"Hmm, oh, it did," Zoro answered, looked down on his upper body and took a swig at the beer, "So?"

"_So_, put some damn clothes on! It's not very nice to look at. You're totally messed up!"

"So don't look. It's not-" Nami had thrown his top over his face. Zoro sighed but put the white clothing on.

The captain stretched his arms to the other side of the blanket to get some more meat. This caused the green-haired woman to blurt out the beer she was drinking.

"Hey, your arm stretched!"

The others all turned to look at her with hopeless faces.

"How can you possibly have not noticed that when he fought the lizard?!" yelled the sniper.

"Huh? My arm? Yeah," Luffy stretched his face out on both sides, then let it go and grinned, "I'm a rubber man!"

"That's so cooooool!" said Kiwa and put her hands together while stars replaced her eyes, "Another Devil Fruit! Do you have even more?"

Her question was answered as a row of blooming arms appeared like a wave in front of her, "Yes, two more," the archaeologist said and smiled.

Kiwa's head was now surrounded with even more blinking stars as she eagerly looked around for the last one.

"Isn't it pretty obvious?" muttered the swordsman and everybody pointed at the skeleton.

"Yeah, sure is..." The woman tried to look smug for a second but the stars in her eyes disappeared and then she exaggeratedly shook her head and said, "No, I don't have a clue of what you're talking about here."

The skeleton started to tell his story to the woman.

* * *

The sky started to turn pink by the horizon and the navigator noted that it was already evening. The time had passed by fast while everybody was talking, laughing, eating, drinking and what not. It was simply great having the whole crew gathered like this, especially after the incidents at Thriller Bark. Sure, they had partied there too but at then there was a certain someone who'd slept through the whole thing. They would all return to the ship later this day and then they would also be together. Nobody was leaving now, their whereabouts could almost ensure that, and that made Nami feel safe.

There was this simpleminded red-eyed woman as well. Well, the navigator didn't really know, but she was pretty sure it was a woman. The way she talked and her body language didn't really lean towards any of the sexes. Her chest was so small that she actually started to wonder but on the other hand, her body was pretty small and fragile looking... She repelled these thoughts almost right away; It didn't really matter for the time being, or even at all.

Before the more energetic ones in the group could start with some other ridiculous games, Nami simply suggested, "Let's play cards!"

"But nee-chan, the cards aren't enough for every one of us!" stated the shipwright.

"It's okay, we'll just split up in pairs!"

The navigator sat with her back against the forest and gazed over the others. Sanji was sitting by her right side and Chopper on her left. Since the little doctor probably didn't had the total grasp of it, she decided it to be better if he was with her rather than their idiotic captain sitting to Chopper's right.

"Okay, I'll be with Chopper!"

"But- But Nami-swaan!" complained the cook beside her.

The doctor looked up to Nami and smiled. She replied the same, ensuring him guidance.

"So, now it's simple. Luffy, you're sitting beside Brook, so you're also a team."

"Yo-ho-ho-ho! Marvellous!"

"So that means that you Usopp, is with Kiwa."

The sniper didn't show any emotion except perhaps one of a little worry. He looked at the red-eyed woman beside her. She only laughed loudly as usual, then she gave the sniper a harsh thump on the back, "Now! Let's beat the crap out of them Longnose! See, I just came up with this really good strategy, and we should try it out!" In response, the sniper only looked strangely at the woman but gave after and then they both turned their back against the others and started to whisper.

"Zoro and Robin, you're a team."

"I'm not even with Robin-chan?! And she's gonna be with that bastard!?" the cook protested again.

The swordsman didn't response to what Nami had said since he wasn't surprised. He had already calculated so much that he would be with either the archaeologist or the shipwright and it just turned out to be the first. The woman moved a bit closer to him, nothing strange about that. Then she smiled at him, which he felt would be a bit too cold to just ignore, so he returned the gaze but was surprised that he didn't need to force the smile.

"Do you think we should do this the honest way?" asked the woman lowly, chuckled lightly and nodded her head in the direction of the allied sniper and green-haired visitor who seemed to be up to no good.

"Hmm, well, we can give it one shot, at least." The swordsman smirked, knowing what his partner was capable of, "One."

"And at least, Franky and Sanji," declared Nami whereupon she ordered the cook to stop whining.

"Don't worry, curly cook. I've been feeling extra super this weak so we should easily win this!"

"I don't care about that!"

"That just sounds as chickening out to me, love cook," goaded the swordsman, knowing that he'd catch the bait.

"Oh, yeah? How about we make a bet?"

"Yeah?"

He pleaded to the archaeologist, "Sorry, Robin-chwan, but this is for my pride." Then he turned more to the swordsman with a harsher voice, "If our team wins, you'll have to do the dishes yourself for a weak!"

"Okay," Zoro laughed. Even if Robin didn't help him, he would still beat the shitty cook in a round of card-playing. Though, he could sense that the raven-haired woman beside him didn't want to loose either way, "Besides, are you dumb? Maybe neither of us wins. We have to count from which of our teams scores the highest. If we do, you'll have to let me take as much sake as I want for one year."

"For one week!"

The archaeologist helped the navigator to clear the blanket a little. Then Nami went to get the pack of cards.

"Okay, you two, shut up." She glanced at the cook and swordsman who still were arguing, "We're playing 5-cards poker, first to 21 wins." Then she took her seat again and started to deal out the cards.

"Brook! Just grab as much of them as you can, okay? That's the plan," said the captain and eagerly waited for their first card.

"You idiot! You're only getting 5!"

"But Nami! How can I win with only 5 cards!"

"Quiet! Only do as Brook tells you to!"

Everybody took their cards to look at and then quietly discussed the matter with their teammate.

"So, what do you think?" whispered the raven-haired archaeologist.

"Haha, I don't know! Toss these ones maybe?" answered the swordsman and pointed out a few.

"Hmm, yes, let's try it."

"Oi, Nami! What does it mean when you have two kings?" asked the captain.

"It means you're ruining the game and that you should just shut up, idiot!"

"Oh, no good then? Let's toss 'em."

"Wait, Luffy-kun!"

"Oi, cook! You're so going down this round."

"Shut up! We'll show you, stupid marimo!" Sanji and Franky did not seem to come to an understanding, however, and so they hassled and argued with each other, frustrated as they were.

Zoro leaned more to the archaeologist, chuckled and whispered, "See? We don't even need your ability to know that the cook has a bad hand."

Robin let out a rather loud laugh, one of those that rarely escapes her mouth, "I guess we don't."

* * *

_This is my longest chapter thus far xD_

_I know Sanji is actually from North Blue but I thought that maybe Luffy had forgotten it xD And it was general, not really from where they were born. Robin's from West Blue but I don't think Luffy knows that. Hell with it, it's just a simple explanation xD_

_Tare_Chan and collataro confirmed my thoughts I had in the previous chapter. The reason I haven't noticed that Robin stopped calling the crew by their jobs is probably because what you said, that she haven't called Zoro and Sanji by their names yet._

_I will however do like you said, Nothing But The Truth, and take this as consideration for future stories ^^_

_The fact that Zoro and Robin already trust each other in my story makes it kind of hard writing about them, especially during conversations between them. If it wasn't for that Zoro is hurt because of Kuma, they wouldn't have anything to talk about at all except for maybe future events. Not anything else that I would know about anyway. I lack so much fantasy, it's painful! _D:


	12. A Good Evening

**Chapter 12.**

**A Good Evening**

"Ne, Nami. Let me deal out the cards for once!" shouted the laughing and also laughable captain of the Strawhat Pirates.

After one round of cards won easily by Zoro and Robin, the emotions was mixed in the group. The green haired man often looked in the direction of his blonde nakama, causing upwelling irritation in the latter. Even though he knew that this reaction was what the marimo in front of him wanted, the cook couldn't hold back his frustration. Of course he knew that their win was all Robin's doing and that the swordsman wouldn't be as confident in winning this bet if he weren't teamed up with her. Looking bitterly at the smugly smiling Zoro, he felt his own mouth twitch when realizing that the chances of him loosing the bet was actually pretty high.

"No, Luffy, you'll just get more confused," stated the navigator, holding the pack of cards away from her captains stretching arms.

The archaeologist inspected the group. This ruckus was only the usual and as usual she would gladly watch it while having the warm feeling of being part of a family. Perhaps not just as usual, though, was that this time the smile on her lips was forming wider due to her being the source of the arguing between the - for the time being - complacent looking swordsman seated just beside her, and the cook he was angering a few meters away.

One time, Zoro had preached for having her as his teammate in this. Although she found the statement rather enjoyable, Robin choose to be on the safe side and decided not to take it as flatter. Naturally, since she was good at playing cards and in addition having the best possible ability for cheating in it, the swordsman would be glad. That would, after all, mean that he would win the bet, if Robin wanted him to, that is.  
The raven-haired woman chuckled for herself. She won't be that cruel, and besides, she wanted to win as a team herself.

"But, Naaami, I really want to!" Luffy pleaded, still trying to grab the cards from the orange-haired woman.

The navigator let her head down in defeat and sighed, "Fine, only this time," then she handed the cards to the excited captain.

Luffy grinned and started to distribute the cards while the rest waited patiently. The small bits of paper was thrown around hopelessly and some of the crew placed their head behind their hand in slight frustration.

After finally being finished, everyone sort of awkwardly gathered their cards again, though not knowing exactly if they was really meant for them or not.

Franky held the hand in front of him and the cook and both inspected the cards. Something odd disturbed them so they tilted their heads to one side and gave the situation a thought, "Hmm..."

Then everybody furiously tossed their hand at the ground, "We have 9 cards, idiot!"

"Oh? But it was fun! I didn't want to stop!" answered the captain, not feeling very guilty at all. He laughed and were clapping his hands together of amusement.

"Geez, give me that!" said the navigator, took the cards from her captain and then gathered the others, "I'll do it."

The sniper and their green-haired visitor looke like they were cooking up something not so pleasant, whispering and planning possible strategies to cheat. The shipwright inspecting them only sighed. It was just a game and yet it seemed as their own excitement had brought them to seriously test out their actual abilities. Though, it would seem that the expectations couldn't be set very high as their previous effort was to merely tell everyone to look up at the sky so that they could peep at the other's hands. It had been unsuccessful, too.

"Okay.. so last time didn't work.." muttered the green-haired woman and stroke her chin.

"Of course it didn't work, they're not dumb!" hissed the sniper but paused to look at his now bitter-looking captain, "Well, most of them in any case..."

"Yosh! It's time for my other genius plan, then!"

"What? What is it?"

"No, no, it'll be good. Just trust me! Distract the others!" Kiwa turned around and soon she let out a small yelp and shortly after another one.

She turned around again, her bang covering her upper face including the eyes, "Where are you?"

"What! Take your hair away so you can see!" The sniper shoved the bang away from her face but the sight caused him also to let out a yelp, "WH-WHAT ARE YOU DOIIIIING!?"

Kiwa shushed him, "Quiet, or the others will find out! Now, throw this when nobody's watching." The woman held out her hand and talked to another direction of the one the sniper was in.

"N-n-no! Why did you do that! That's gross!"

"It's alright, I can see again when I plug them in later. They will record what they can catch up in about 5 minutes." She threw an eye at where she now was sure the sniper was seated. It landed right in his face.

The sniper caught the object in his hands and grasped the situation for a second before crying out loudly and letting the eye drop to the ground, "EEEEP!"

"What is it, Usopp?" wondered Nami.

The green-haired woman stupidly looked in different directions trying to grasp where the others was seated. She waved her hand, "No, nothing. He just thought our cards were bad."

The navigator looked strangely at the dumb looking woman who's bang covered her upper face, "But I haven't lent you the cards yet..."

The woman ignored her and turned to the sniper and whispered, "Now, that was quite embarrassing. Why didn't you say anything? She asked you."

"You were the one who answered by yourself!"

"But you were so slow! Are the cards dealed now?"

"Wh- Wha ...Yeah."

"Good, then throw it so it can maybe see someone else's hand."

"Huh! I'm not throwing that!"

"But weren't you a sniper or stuff?"

"It should be 'o_r something_' and yes, I am!"

"Well, just throw one so can I throw the other." The woman took a stance in her sitting position and then blindly threw the eye in some unknown direction. It hit the shipwright right on spot in the head.

"What the hell..?" Franky gasped and looked at the object that'd flew in to him, "An eye! Where did it...?"

"Ops! Oh, that'll be mine! It, ehm... fell out!"

"CUT THAT SHIT OUT!" Everybody yelled at once.

* * *

Hours later, the sun had settled and the sky was slowly turning into a dark shade of blue. Only a glimpse of pink could be seen at the horizon but it was still enough to massively lit up the sky to the point where it didn't turn completely dark.

The party was stuffing up the picnic and gathered everybody's respective belongings. The day had been a good one, but now the time to retreat back to the ship had come.

"Oh, it's gonna be great to have som fine sake when we get back," preached the swordsman while settling his swords by his side. He couldn't help himself, out of 6 rounds of cards, he and the archaeologist had won 5 of them. He had won the bet and not only won but won big. Honestly too. Well, not that he really took any credit but seeing the cook in crushing defeat nevertheless was something that he enjoyed.

"Oh, shut up, stupid marimo!" snarled the blonde chef. If the cigarette in his mouth wasn't in bad shape before, then it was now. He chewed on it like the tobacco somehow could still his anger faster by consuming it instead of inhaling it.

"Why? We won, fair and square." Smiling, the swordsman picked up one ridiculously big backpack to carry back to the ship. He had somehow hoped that the ignorance he'd built up during their time on the beach could keep him from noticing the actual weight of it. Disturbingly enough, he did notice, even though it was slightly lighter than it had been before. It didn't hurt much but just the thought of his body exerting itself for what would been like nothing otherwise was enough to make Zoro bitter inside. He sniffed at himself and determinate not to show even a shadow of other emotions than that one of a healthy person before his crew and smugness while facing the cook, he let another bigger wave of ignorance wash over him.

The cook picked up a smaller bag as well and then gestured with his hands out at both sides as if something obvious was what disturbed the man, "But Robin-chan can..!"

"Can what?" The raven-haired woman walked to pick up the typical picnic basket Luffy had required for his adventure, then she walked to stand by her teammate as if to not only defend her self from the cooks statement, "Are you implying that I cheated, kokku-san?"

Sanji's mouth fell open by her words, almost enough for the cigarette to fall out, "N-no! That's not it, Robin-cwhan! I'm- I'm sorry!"

The archaeologist only turned away to start walking back to the ship. Everybody else started to follow her but the swordsman and cook reminded a few seconds longer, just to exchange a smirk and a hateful glare.

Zoro turned away and walked up by Robin's side, forcing himself to not laugh about the situation, "He still thinks you did, you know."

"Does he now? Oh my," Robin kept walking but shifted her head backward so that she could see her blond nakama in the corner of her eye, but only for a second before she turned forward again, "Kokku-san, I can ensure you that I played this game in all it's honesty. Don't you believe me?"

The cigarette actually did fell out this time as he was walking, "I- I believe you, Robin-cwhan! Forgive me for ever doubting you!"

The swordsman was the only one who could see that the seriousness in Robin's voice didn't fit at all with the smirk on her face.

The navigator walking further back in the group sighed, "Well, at least we won one time. Right, Chopper?" She looked at the little doctor walking slightly behind her and smiled.

The little reindeer suddenly burst out in happiness and danced.

"Well, I'm glad I didn't agree to any bet," said Usopp and stared at the all so happy Kiwa with a judging look.

"Haha, yeah me too! Longnose here couldn't even cheat smoothly!" She heavily bumped the sniper in the back.

"You mean YOU, right!?"

The captain walked with arms behind his head, having a strange crooked smile on his lips, "Shishishishishi, I got my adventure!"

* * *

Later, the group was back at the Sunny. Everything was packed up and everybody was just hanging around, wondering if they even had any strength left to stay up longer or if they should just call it a night.

"May I offer you ladies anything before you go to bed?" the cook asked the navigator, archaeologist and their visitor.

"No, I'm fine Sanji-kun, I think I'm going to sleep now. Maybe you want something, Robin, Kiwa?"

"Nah, I'm good," The red-eyed woman yawned.

"It's alright kokku-san, you can go to sleep, I'll just help myself if I feel peckish about something." The raven-haired woman smiled before she left to the womans quarters to get her book.

"All right, Robin-cwhan! Well then, I bid you ladies good night! Oh wait, Kiwa-san, where are you going to sleep?" He looked at the woman in question and then got a satisfying idea, formed heart shaped eyes and continued, "There's plenty of space in my bed if you-!"

"NO, she's not going to sleep there!" yelled the navigator.

Kiwa laughed, "It's alright, I'm not very picky so I'll just find somewhere on the ground to kip." She went down on all four and then leaned down to set her cheek against the lawn, "Oh, this grass is already very cosy, I think I'll... just..."

"..." The rest of the crew narrowed their eyes.

"She fell asleep..." said the sniper.

"Is there no limits for how strange you can be..?" mumbled the shipwright.

The captain laughed about it, "She fell asleep like that! She's interesting!"

"Oh! Maybe I can see her pants now?"

"NO! You go to sleep, right now!" yelled the navigator at them.

The swordsman stretched his arms behind his back and then snorted, "Well, I think I'm going to have some of that sake now." He smirked, put his hands in his pockets and then went off to the kitchen.

The cook mumbled angry things under his breath but then wished the only lady left awake at the lawn good night and went off to the mens quarters. The rest went to their respective quarters as well and the only one left on the lawn was the green-haired woman sleeping in a strange position.

* * *

Zoro took a few more swigs of the sake direct from the bottle, wiped his mouth with his arm and then let out a relieved sigh. He looked up at the sky from where he was seated on the upper deck of the Sunny. It was going to be starry, just like the day before.

He wasn't much of a thinker usually but when he sat there by himself, he couldn't help but consider how his life had turned out thus far. All the things he and the crew had experienced. When it had all started for him... While being hold at the marines for trying to achieve some kind of justice, he met this stupid looking boy who claimed to be the future Pirate King. Preferring life over death he had agreed to join him on his journey, thus becoming the first mate of the Strawhat Pirates.

Zoro enjoyed the fact that he'd experienced the joining of every other crewmate. First there was this burglar woman who'd agreed to cooperate with him and his captain after they defeated Buggy and his crew. Then they'd helped out this longnosed scaredy-cat and attained not only him as a crewmate but a fine ship as well. After that they'd went on a search for a chef and after been defeated by Mihawk and went to search for both Nami and The going Merry, Luffy showed up with this stupid blonde cook.

After defeating Arlong, Nami officially joined the crew and then together they all entered the Grand Line. Even more adventures awaited them and after agreeing to help Vivi, they headed for Alabasta, but on their way there, Nami got sick. They searched for a doctor at Drum-island and then made the little reindeer join them as well. After the lot of them defeated Crocodile and Alabasta was saved, Nico Robin held Luffy responsible for letting her live when she wanted to die and thus demanded him to take her along.

Later, they traveled to Water 7 in order to get Merry fixed but when that was said to be impossible, Usopp left the crew. Franky first appeared to be their enemy but the circumstances changed and he helped them get Robin back from the government. Usopp also apologised and rejoined. Then there was Thriller Bark...

Zoro didn't want to think about what happened there. He shrugged it off and thought that at least they got another crewmate, this humming skeleton.

Their journey had been fairly long and soon they would be pretty much half the way from their destination. All he could wish for, besides becoming the strongest of swordsmen, was to at least have the time to experience the remaining half of adventures as well, with his nakama.

When he thought about it, this was pretty soft thinking coming from his side. Maybe that was why he didn't usually think this much. Or perhaps he was just thinking that because he didn't usually think about stuff much at all.

Well, he could contrast situations and adjust to them, that sort of thinking was natural and also necessary. This, however, was just letting the mind go loose and see what there is to find. In the end, it actually didn't matter at all.

The swordsman snorted at his own resolve and then took another few swigs from the bottle. He couldn't continue though, -he let his lip hang out a little as he turned the bottle upside down- it was empty.

He could feel that his body would happily welcome some well deserved sleep. Though 'well deserved' wasn't really what Zoro would call it. However, tired or not, the swordsman didn't let the body's needs go before his will and he was not going to waste this opportunity of having as much alcohol he could drink for a week.

_That's right, how does that sound, stupid body? You must hate me, really._

He got up and headed to the kitchen to get himself another bottle. He could from a distance see that his destination was already lit up and could only imagine one person being there right now, most likely deeply devoured by a book.

* * *

_Yes, how about we start off the new year with a good evening, eh? Well, maybe I'm 3 days late but.. so what, damn it xD_

_Man! I didn't get any inspiration at all for this chapter. It was all totally blank. Even if I don't want to force anything I just like had to now so I could freaking get going with the story already, so I don't know if this turned out any good. I know what major things I want to happen but that stuff in between is hard! And that kinda sucks 'cause that's what binds the whole story together xD_

_Haha, I know I've really gone too far with how injured Zoro really is and I've been trying to stabilize it a little here. Or no, not perhaps with how injured he is, rather how he reacts to his injuries. I know that normally, Zoro would be really frustrated if he didn't got to train at all, as in my story, haha. Let's just say he didn't feel that frustrated due to maybe other.. interesting.. things? xD  
_

_Anyway, I can't promise anything but I'll try to get on with it now when things are running a little more smoothly for me and release the 13,th chapter soon as well. Hope you all had a great holiday ^^_

_And btw, did that actual summary of the whole crew joining-thingy sound good or just repetitive? o.0_


	13. The Call

**Chapter 13.**

**The Call  
**

"**_Chapter 3._**

_Chapter Preluge  
_

_The Devil fruit is a tool for you to use. The second you eat it, it becomes a part of you. Depending on how you use it, the Devil Fruit can be everything from the most handy facility at home to the most fearsome of weapons in battle. You can form it, adjust it, precise it and develop it in endless of ways. Even if you were to think that there is not much more to this Devil Fruit, there actually is. You can always improve if you put your mind into it and that remains an obvious fact. _

_The key to improving is to search beyond your limits. This chapter will help you understand how a living creature is able to improve."_

Robin looked up from the book and smiled. "To Perfect The Use Of The Devil Fruit" was getting more and more interesting. The chapters were long but everything was informative.

The archaeologist knew that this whole book probably could be summarized with the words "The key to improving is to search beyond your limits" but so far had nothing written in it disturbed her or made her disappointed. Things that were once blurry were now clear and the raven-haired woman was eager to finish the book so that she could see how much wiser she would have become then.

Robin was about to start reading the upcoming chapter when she was interrupted by the kitchen door being opened. She looked up again and saw the swordsman standing in the doorway. He had an empty bottle in his hand and the archaeologist could guess that he was after another one, not empty, of course.

"You're really taking advantage of this opportunity, eh, Kenshi-san?"

The swordsman snorted a little jokingly, "Yeah, I have to now when there's no shitty cook in my way, right?."

Robin smiled at him and Zoro responded the same way before he walked over to the refrigerator and bent down to inspect the selection of alcohol. Finally he grabbed a bottle of red wine and turned to look at the woman behind him.

"Care to share a bottle with me?" he asked her casually and held out and waved the bottle of wine to show her.

Robin was rather surprised by his offer but gave him another smile before she answered, "I'll be glad to."

Zoro didn't know why, really, he had asked but he figured that some company could never hurt. He grabbed two glasses before he went to take a seat at the table facing the raven-haired woman. He sat in a leaned back position and put his leg over the other and adjusted it to have his ankle leaning against the other thigh.

Robin closed her book and put it aside, jestingly thinking that it would be rather impolite to just ignore her company. Besides, there was no doubt in her mind that this wouldn't me fun. She leaned her head against her left hand and watched the man before her pouring up vine in the two glasses.

"So... are you getting any smarter?" he asked, glanced at the book and then took a zip from his glass.

"Well, I hope so." Elegantly she took and held the glass before her, "I definitely think it will help me improve."

"Oh, that's good. Heh, maybe you should let Luffy borrow it."

Robin chuckled and took a zip from the wine as well, "That's probably not the best idea."

The swordsman smirked, "No, probably not. He wouldn't understand any of it."

"He's doing a pretty good job improving by himself anyway, don't you think?"

"Yeah, he seldom let us down in battles, that's for sure." Zoro had quickly emptied his glass so he put it down and refilled it.

"Well, that goes for you as well, Kenshi-san." She smiled genuinely at him.

The green-haired man took his eyes off his glass and looked at her with interested eyes that yet could reflect a bit of tiredness. Robin could swear that there were a glimpse of sadness there as well but the area surrounding him told her completely different. Even now, sitting casually in front of her while taking a relaxing glass of wine, she could feel his enormous spirit crashing against everything in the room. Everything except for her. It was avoiding her. Blocking her from feeling inside of any of that strong spirit. This clearly told her that his thoughts and emotions was unavailable – out of reach. It was just centimeters away from her and she could only sense it at the most.

The swordsman turned his gaze to his glass again, feeling almost ridiculous for suddenly finding the red liquid in it so interesting. He snorted quietly for himself, thinking that he certainly did let them down last time at Thriller Bark. Didn't she see? They survived it, sure, but if he only had been stronger then he wouldn't be this injured and unable to protect his nakama now. Besides, last time was a little bit too close. It shouldn't have to be like that. Uncomfortable was all he was feeling when he thought about it.

"It is true Kenshi-san. You have in any case never disappointed me," stated Robin, as if she knew that the swordsman before her wasn't happy with what she had said earlier and somewhat needed to ensure him of this. She looked at him while slowly taking a wig from her glass.

Zoro told himself to continue putting up his fasade. As if to just shrug this matter off - he did just that, shrugged and tilted his head so he could see the woman in front of him again, "I'm just doing the best I can, just as everybody else."

"Yes, and no one can require any more than that," The archaeologist gazed slightly upwards. It had almost sounded as if she was telling this just as much to herself as to the swordsman.

She wondered, was he really alright then? Or could he hide his pain and emotions better than she thought?

Not knowing why really but feeling almost as if she had tramped on someones toes with this subject, she decided to smoothly start talking about something else.

She looked down again, let the hand that cupped around her left cheek fall down to instead lean at her other arm and then took the last wig of the wine. Zoro did her the honour to pour up more.

He also took the initiative of changing the subject, "Is it any good?"

Robin rippled the beverege round in the glass and observed it, "Yes, pretty good."

"Hmm, yes," Zoro inspected his glass for a moment as well and then took another few wigs, "I can definitely get used to this." He looked at Robin and let out a short laugh, "It's a good thing you're a woman, or else the cook would have never accepted that we won fairly."

Robin chuckled, "That's true," then her tone changed to a more sophisticated one, "I'll only use my devil fruit powers when I need to."

"Hoo, self-confident are we?" Zoro smirked. It was funny, it felt like it usually should be the woman before him saying that instead.

And almost as if on order, Robin leaned a bit forward and said, "The same goes for you."

By recognizing the only expression on the swordsman's face as a frown she continued, "You were flown quite the bit when the lizard spitted you out. You really didn't got injured?"

Her green-haired nakama sighed and looked at her with troubled eyes, "No, it didn't scratch me a bit."

"Not the least?"

"Look, Robin. What is it that you want, really? Insurance? Proof? Well, I can't give you proof, maybe Chopper can but I'm ensuring you this with my words – I am fine. And you just have to trust me on that."

Robin was expressionless for a while. How in the world did she end up bringing up the subject that she just recently had put aside? Well, this time she was definitely going to let it go, for now at least.

She let out a small sigh and then brought on a smile to her lips, "Okay, I guess my only choice is to trust you then."

"Yeah, that's better." His expression turned softer, "Now drink up, I have to spend at _least_ 5 bottles per day to annoy the hell out of that cook."

The archaeologist let her head down and laughed with him. Then she forced herself to pursue her lips so that she could do as the swordsman in front of her also did – drink up.

* * *

A while later, the kitchen door opened again and the navigator, wearing pyjamas and a bathrobe, walked in.

She was quite stunned by seeing both Zoro and Robin together there, she had only expected the latter. What just seemed more out of place was that they were sharing a bottle of wine and by seeing a few more empty ones standing on the table as well, her guess was that this had been going on for quite some time now.

"Oh, Kōkaishi-san, what are you doing up?" asked Robin and looked at her.

Nami looked at her watch, it showed her 02:45 Pm. She returned her gaze to her two nakama sitting at the table, "I was taking a glass of water out on the lawn and I saw that the lights were on in here so I just wanted to check... No I mean, what are _you_ doing up!?"

The swordsman gestured at the empty bottles, "Isn't it obvious? Drinking. Why?"

Nami sighed and looked bitterly at the swordsman, "Just because Sanji-kun can't stop you from taking all the alcohol for one week doesn't mean I can't. I don't care about your bet! It's expensive you know! I'm gonna raise your-!"

A sudden loud and strange sort of roar cut the navigator off. It lasted long and sounded painful, sad and frightening, yet it was powerful and almost shocking. When it finally ended everything was dead silent for a while.

"Wha- What was that!?" said Nami and looked around in suspicion, "Where did it come from?"

"It must be coming from outside," said Zoro in a serious tone, rose up, pushed Wadō Ichimonji up one centimeter with his thumb and then headed for the door. The others followed him.

Zoro gazed down over the lawn and around the ship and so did Nami and Robin but none of them could see anything out of the ordinary except for a woman sleeping in a strange position. It was still dark outside but not so dark that it was hard to see.

"It sounded like it came from far away," stated the archaeologist.

The door to the men's quarters were slammed open and out wandered the rest of the crew.

"W-w-wha-what the hell w-w-was that!" stumbled the sniper while hiding together with the little doctor behind the shipwright, they both trembled with fear.

Zoro, Nami and Robin also gathered down with the others at the lawn.

"I don't know what it was but I can't hear it any longer," said the navigator and inspected the others. When her eyes finally settled on a certain green-haired woman with her butt pouting up towards the sky she went over there and kicked her in the stomach.

"W-what!?" After landing a few meters away the woman lazily raised herself to a standing position.

The navigator sighed at their visitor's ignorance, "How can you still be sleeping after that loud and scary roar just a minute ago?!"

"Roar..?" Kiwa hid her neck by pushing her shoulders up high and brushed her upper arms with her hands, "It's cold, isn't it?"

Recognition consumed the others as they mimicked their visitor.

"Cold! It's so cold! Why? Isn't this supposed to be a summer island?" staggered the captain and jumped to one feet to another.

"Fall," stated the navigator, "but it shouldn't be this cold anyway, it's not winter season yet."

"My skin feels so cold I just wanna die!" cried the skeleton. Then he put his hands on both sides of his head, "Although, I have no skin and I'm already dead! Yo-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"What is this? I feel strange..." said Sanji while lightening a cigarette.

"You look pale bro, are you sick or something?" asked Franky.

"What? No... _You_ look pale."

"A-a-am I going colour-blind?" stumbled Usopp, "You are all gray! It's all so blurry and gray!"

"I'm... I'm having a hard time breathing..." wheezed Robin. She held her hand against her throat.

The little reindeer looked horror-struck at everyone. He slowly walked against the woman and could merely stumble, "What...is... it... Robin...?"

The swordsman also put his hand at his throat and soon everybody else did the same, "What... is this?"

"It's getting... hard to see... as well," wheezed the navigator, "It's like... a fog."

"I can't see... anything," gasped the shipwright and looked around aimlessly, "Oi, guys... I can't see you!"

"What..." Luffy stared right forward, seeing only gray and white thick fog, "What is this! Oi! Guys... are you okay!?"

Nami let out a scream. She had no time to gasp after air but instead she hastily stumbled backwards, away from what she was seeing.

"Oi! Nami!" yelled Luffy.

Brook was heard gasping several times, "What- There are monsters! Monsters in the fog!"

Also Chopper and Usopp cried out. Thuds was heard, indicating that people was falling down on the grass.

"OI! What's happening...! Are you alright!?" yelled the captain. He suddenly stopped and shrugged back one step when he saw a skull-like figure shaped by the fog moving towards him. He heard complaining and tormented sounds growing louder as it came closer. It soon developed to a mini version of the previous starting roar as it ran through his body. Now he felt even weirder, as if he was scared.

"Bastard..!" Sanji gathered all his courage and strength to try and kick the faces away. It turned out to be futile and actually, he really hadn't thought it was going to work from the start, "Damn!"

The sniper were so terrified he could barely even move. He could hear his nakama struggling in their own ways but he could swear that in addition to the tormented sounds the faces were making he was hearing even more screams further away. That's when it occurred to him that this probably had struck the people in the town and probably around the whole island as well.

The swordsman started to cough violently and fell to his knees. Between every seizure he had to hurry and take breaths but every wheezing breath he was able to take were almost no good anyway. He felt like he was choking. He could hear the others being freaked out about the situation. Luffy angrily wanting to know what was going on. Nami, Chopper, Usopp and Brook being terror-struck. The stupid cook hopelessly swearing and the shipwright being all confused. He couldn't hear what were Robin and Kiwa's cases but he could definitely sense their presences.  
He himself had no time for being frightened by the scarred faces in the fog which seemed to be the others source of fear as he was too troubled about not being able to breath and actually feared that he wasn't going to make it if this kept on going.

He fell forward and supported himself with one hand against the ground while the other were still at his throat, hopelessly trying to increase the flow of oxygen in some hopeless way. It was futile, and he knew it. Things started to look strange, everything swayed and it just made the faces look ridiculous instead. The dizziness overwhelmed him and he could feel the strength in every limb slowly pass away. He fell to his side and it didn't take many panicky seconds before everything turned black for the swordsman.

Robin peered her eyes in an attempt to see through the fog but knew it wouldn't work that well. She had almost gotten used to the occasional faces showing up by now. She ignored them and instead tried to find her nakama.

The archaeologist had enough of this. She closed her eyes, pictured the ship in her head and made 20 eyes do the looking for her instead. This was just a test to see if the fog was as thick everywhere, and it was. She passed on to her other plan and continued having her eyes closed. She exchanged the eyes all over the ship to ears and tried to overhear the painful sounds and distinguish her nakamas voices and in that way be able to gather them all together.

She had only barely moved from where she stood at first before the fog and knew that the swordsman should be close to her. She tried to sharpen her senses, tried to see if she could sense the overwhelming spirit which she had before, tried to feel if it was crashing against everything now as well. The result she wasn't happy with. She couldn't sense him but she didn't know if it had anything to do with the fog or not. Whatever possibility that crossed her mind added more and more fire to her worries.

She turned to her left and started to walk slowly meanwhile she blindly held out her arms in front of her to feel her way through. After only a few steps she bumped into something laying on the ground and it didn't take long before she could identify the person as the one she was looking for. Unfortunately though, it seemed that he didn't longer belonged to the concious world.

She turned the man around to inspect him closer and could confirm that he was definitely fainted. She laid a hand at his chest and held her ear against his mouth to confirm something else important. A slowly repeating movement under her hand and a silent wheezing tickling her ear told her that the swordsman at least was breathing.

The archaeologist wondered what she should do. The only thing she could do was to wait for this to be over and have Chopper look at him, right? She inspected his face and recognized the slightly narrowed eyebrows... Wait, he didn't look _that _peaceful. Was he... _sleeping_?

She grabbed his shoulders and shook him, "Kenshi-san, wake up!"

The response was merely a groan at first but then Zoro's eyes flew up and he was consumed by recognition. He was slightly confused by seeing the archaeologist bent down over him but choose to ignore it for now.

"Here." Robin held out her hand to him. He took it and with help from the woman he rose to his feet again.

The swordsman's first action by instinct was to hold his hand against his throat again but suddenly it wasn't as hard to breath anymore. He could see that Robin had noticed as well.

"I had enough of this!" It was their captain yelling.

The fog was actually thinning out but Luffy didn't seem to notice and launched out his arms as long to the sides as the ships construction allowed and then surrounded the whole lawn with them. Continuing he connected his arms together and formed a big circle but just as fast he shrunk the extent in purpose to bring everybody together in some sort of big hug.

"Whoa-!"

Everybody was fiercely flown into both each other and the captain.

"It worked! Everybody's here!" said Luffy and laughed.

"Uncalled for!" yelled Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji and together they kicked the captain into the wall behind.

* * *

_HAHA, I had a hard time writing the part when Zoro was entering the kitchen. I was listening to "Call from the Grave – Bathory" and I just got this super-evil feeling and had the urge to write about Zoro being the devil himself or something like that. Yeah, maybe it is a bit fitting in itself but the circumstances was just too nice for that XD_

_Haha, "and release the 13,th chapter soon as well." Yeah, right. Sorry for taking so long with this but the truth is: I had no internet! Not so very guilty KnutKnutsson here decided to go streaking all of sudden so I had long lasting problems convincing him to work for me again. Well, that's not the whole truth. I actually hadn't finished this chapter even after I had internet again and yeah.. that was quite recently so.. I guess I'm just a lazy ass XD_

_No. or no. I mean yes, but as you can see, this chapter turned out to be quite long cause I figured that I can't just have a whole chapter with only Zoro and Robin talking (as good as it may sound.) And I've recently procured a tablet and so many hours was given to that as well. Damn, it's so much fun! :D_

_I've actually drawn Kiwa and uploaded on deviantart if by any chance there would be anyone interested in how I pictured her. Maybe it's totally different from what you imagined. There's also some Robin and Zoro pictures there! You can find the link on my profile, otherwise my username is the same as here, Slipmaskin ^^ bzzzzzzzz *EDIT* That picture of Kiwa is long gone, just so u know, I have to keep up with my own standards ;D *EDIT*  
_


	14. Kitchen Blues

**Chapter. 14**

**Kitchen Blues**

The navigator angrily walked over and bent down to grab her captain by the collar, "Stop being so rash! Didn't you see that the fog already was getting thinner?"

"But Naaami, I just wanted to know that everyone was safe!" Luffy complained, loosened himself from the navigators hands and stood up.

"Well, yo-yo-you could've thought of it earlier!" stumbled the sniper and looked suspiciously in every direction. He slowly sneaked over to hide behind the swordsman.

"I... I... I thought I was going to have a heart-attack..!" Breathed the little reindeer and supported himself against the rail.

"At least everybody's at the same place now," muttered the cook and inspected his environments, "Is everyone okay?"

His dear Nami was seemingly nothing more than irritated by all that had happened. When inspecting her, he noticed that she still was wearing only pajamas and a robe. He found the outfit very cute and couldn't help to swing his hips a little at the sight.

His other precious lady was casual and elegant looking as usual. She only seemed to wait for further action to be taken after this whole experience.

Quickly watching over the others, he saw that the only thing that had shook the captain was perhaps Nami-san. The skeleton was not out of all worries yet, wearing a rather dismayed expression while Franky seemed natural at the moment, also awaiting further actions.

The bastard of a swordsman looked a little gloomy and also a little out of breath but that was only fitting, Sanji thought nonchalantly. The long-nosed sniper that was cowardly hiding behind Zoro was still scared but not in any danger. The same went for the reindeer who now seemed to have recovered his breat a bit.

He didn't expect to see anything strange about the carefree Kiwa but as he glanced over to where she stood, he wasn't very pleased. She had the emptiest eyes while only staring at what seemed to be nothing, spaced out of all what was happening around her.

"Kiwa-san?"

The woman immediately snapped out of her trance, readjusted her eyesight and looked at the cook, "Hm? What?"

"Are you alright?"

Kiwa smiled exaggeratedly and rapidly waved off Sanji's question, "Alright? Of course I am!"

The little reindeer slowly approached the slightly frantic behaving woman, "It's okay, Kiwa. I was scared too!"

The woman waved her other hand as well to ensure her words, "Really! I wasn't scared! I..." She gathered herself, looking almost serious instead and put her hands at her sides, "I just kind of got the feeling of Deja Wû, is all."

Saniji kept inspecting her til he finally came to the conclusion that she also was out of danger.

"So what do we do now?" he asked out to his crewmates.

The navigator sighed and lifted both of her arms out to her sides as a sign of not really knowing, "Go back to sleep, I guess."

The shipwright nodded, "Yeah, there's not much else we can do, is there? Might as well get some rest."

"H-hold up!" Stuttered the sniper and stepped out a bit from behind the swordsman, "I can't sleep now! I... I've gotten the can't-sleep-after-hearing-strange-yell-disease! I'll die if I-"

"Would you rather stay up out here alone?" asked Franky and grinned at the young man.

Usopp squealed at the thought.

"C'mon now, we're all in the same barrack for Christ's sake," said Sanji and started walking towards the men's quarters. The rest started to move as well.

"Good night again my dear ladies!"

Kiwa bent down on her knees and said, "Good Night, chumps!" before she once again fell over into her strange sleeping position and immediately fell asleep.

"Well, good night, then," said Robin and together with the swordsman headed for the kitchen.

"Chotto! Are you still gonna stay up?" asked Nami, "I told you already, alcohol's expens-"

"We're just gonna clean up," muttered Zoro.

"Wouldn't want to leave the kitchen in a mess, ne, Kokashi-san?"

Nami turned around and started to walk to her room again, mumbling highly to herself, "Geez, and what's with those smug faces?"

As fast as Robin and Zoro closed the kitchen door behind themselves, the latter sat down on the coach along the wall and finally allowed himself to take a breather. He didn't really want to let anyone see it but nevertheless preferred the presence of only one nakama rather than everyone.

Robin walked over to stand leaned against the kitchen worktop. She gave out a small chuckle, "A rather inappropriate time to be napping, don't you think, Kenshi-san?"

The swordsman didn't response. He knew a comment from her was unavoidable. Well, at least she was joking. When he looked at her though, he noticed that her face was one of concern rather than her usual mockingly calm face. And even though the latter had irritated the hell out of him countless of times, he would have preferred that one now. The green-haired man got a feeling that she wouldn't let this slip by that easily.

He looked away from her down to his right and sighed. With a rather bothered tone he asked, "What is it?"

The archaeologist looked slightly confused for a moment, "Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean that your face is telling me that something's not right."

"Oh..."

Robin quietly cursed herself for letting it show. Once again the conversation about Zoro's health had became inevitable. She knew the subject was irritating him. Since she knew that, it also started to make her feel quite uncomfortable whenever she brought it up. The problem was that she knew that she couldn't bring herself not to in the future. Perhaps it was best to just get it over with once and for all.

"You aren't in pain?"

There was something in her voice this time, something extraordinary serious in her tone - It surprised Zoro. He turned his gaze to her and managed to shut together his mouth before deciding to irritatingly respond, "I can't believe you're still going on about that! I got a few scratches here and there, so what? It's not like-"

"Because I know I would be- No... I would probably not even have been able to handle it. You're very strong, Zoro."

If the swordsman was surprised before then he didn't know what he was now. She had actually called him by his name. What did this sudden seriousness mean exactly?

Suddenly his gaze turned to a suspicious stare as a thought struck him.

"You... What do you know..?" The swordsman stuttered, having an almost terrorized look in his eyes.

The atmosphere she had brought up now were as tense as ever and the raven-haired woman couldn't respond directly to his question. She almost felt nervous about going any further with the conversation.

"..Well, Kenshi-san, I'm confident in saying that my intelligence reaches above an average-"

"Robin..!" Zoro almost snarled, telling her that this was absolutely the worst times for jokes, even the smallest ones.

The archaeologist turned serious again and stayed quiet for moments longer. She returned eye contact with the swordsman while thinking about how she should continue. The man lent back in the couch and his arms slipped down limp by his sides. He never broke his intensive stare. His move was like a subconscious signal for Robin to spit out what was on her mind.

Robin didn't want to disappoint him, after all, it was she who had brought it all up. She took a short breath before she spoke, "I know how much pain you really are in. Or should be in."

Zoro looked almost confused by her words.

It was just as she thought, Robin had already figured that the man would wait for further explanations rather than spill everything out and maybe expose something new. Though, the swordsman's reactions was already proof itself that something was not right.

Robin proceeded, "You're either hiding it very well or you are really not that hurt after taking in all of Luffy's pain and fatigue, after all."

Zoro's mouth twitched and that much was more than enough confirmation for Robin.

The woman crossed her arms, "I would guess that it's the first one that is true."

"Tch!" The swordsman broke eye contact and looked away. He felt how anger started to overwhelm him. He settled his eyes to blindly stare on the table corner in order to focus his thoughts. _Why_ did someone have to know? It was perfectly fine the way things were already.

He managed to swallow his frustration as another urgent question crossed his mind. He blinked by realization of it and slowly turned his gaze to stare at the corner of the other side of the table.

"How many know about this?" His voice was serious and bitter.

The archaeologist thought that it probably wouldn't help the swordsman feel any better by telling him that also the cook knew, "I heard it from some of the Rolling Pirates who were awake to witness it."

Zoro's expression didn't change.

Robin felt relieved that the swordsman weren't that talkative about this and seemingly didn't need to have it completely confirmed that it was only her that knew.

Everything was silent. Not even a brush from a movement as they both stood and sat still like statues for the time being.

The archaeologist was now calmer about the situation. There, now it was already said and done. All that was left was the swordsman's reactions. In fact, they had been more peaceful than she thought they would be already.

Wanting to understand what was going on in his mind, the woman once again concentrated on her surroundings. She could feel it, his spirit, only centimeters away. So annoyingly close but still out of reach. It was pulsing around her and Robin could tell that this was something just aware by the swordsman deep down in his subconscious. It kept sending out a hard but regular aura. Then the flow suddenly changed and the archaeologist could sense beforehand that the swordsman was going to utter something that troubled him.

Zoro turned his stare to the woman in front of him again, "Why... Why did you tell me?"

Although she felt like she had been warned beforehand, the question still hit her unprepared. She opened her mouth for a second but soon closed it again. It puzzled the archaeologist. She actually didn't really know why herself.

The swordsman continued in a gloomy manner, "I mean, you want me to show how I'm feeling instead of holding it inside me... But why does people have to know? By only expressing that I'm in pain, how does that help anyone?" He hopelessly gestured with one of his hands and let out one desperate laugh, "It doesn't help me and it doesn't help you guys. If it doesn't matter, then I might as well simply not show it, right?"

Robin stayed quiet for moments longer as she considered the swordsman's words. She felt strange about it. To someone else it could have sounded as just empty guesses but to her it was like the swordsman knew exactly what she was thinking. Furthermore, the man was actually quite right.

At last the archaeologist forced one empty chuckle, "I don't quite know why. I guess I just needed confirmation from you."

Zoro gritted his teeth and looked away again. It didn't made sense to him whatsoever. The woman could have might as well kept quite about it. Though, it was the fact that someone else actually knew about what had happened that disturbed him the most.

He knew he should be even more upset about this but what now kept bewildering the swordsman was that it just didn't seem to bother him that much after all. He roughly thought over the days that had passed since coming to this island. Perhaps he had sensed it deep down all along. That the woman calmly standing in front of him had knew.

Still, it didn't change the fact that it made him incredibly irritated by knowing that someone had been worrying over him all this time.

Zoro dragged a hand over his face in order to somehow diminish his frustration, closing his eyes on the way.

It was quiet for some time again. The archaeologist patiently waited for her nakama to take some sort of action. The pulsing around her did finally change and she curiously inspected the source of it.

"So you know, huh..."

There was a little pause. Robin could see that he was trying to find a way to put things. His aura changed to one little more relaxed as he looked at her and spoke again.

"It still doesn't change the fact that I'm fine now," he lied. Physically, he had never been trough anything as agonizing and painful as the occurence at Thriller Bark, and his body constantly reminded him of that. It was not fine, and maybe the frustration over it had made an impact on his mental state. However, mentally, the pain was nothing. His thoughts wandered to his deceased childhood friend. No, this was absolutely nothing.

The archaeologist was struck by the eternal stubbornness of her crewmate. However, she knew that she couldn't forcefully make the man show his feelings. Besides, perhaps it really was better if it didn't simply show.

She gave him a genuine smile, "I already told you, right?"

Zoro formed a slight expression of confusion and interest.

"I'm not worried about you," She tilted her head to the side and continued, "I would just like you to be honest with me. If you're in pain, then share it with me."

Zoro was as taken aback again as when she had said those first words before. He looked down, closed his eyes and even formed a small smile before he snorted in a warm manner. He remembered how it had irritated him, but still pleased him, as she had stated those words. Perhaps it was he who needed to stop worrying.

However, sharing his pain? Both knew he wouldn't let that happen that easily. He understood where she was going with this, that friends will bear each others burden and share both happy and painful times together. But sharing his physical pain was not only something he didn't want to but also couldn't do by the laws of physics. Unless he would literally go and beat her to the extent that he thought was his own pain, that is. And of course he would never do that.

Mental pain? Undoubtedly, if things were like that, he would want Robin to share her pain if it would make her feel better. But what pain? What pain could he share? As much as he thought about it, he couldn't understand what his pain was. That meaning that he wasn't in any pain at all.

The swordsman eventually came to the conclusion that Robin couldn't have his pain. Even though he still wouldn't want to share it, now it was simply because he had none.

"Fine," he finally said, "I'll let you have it. You'll know when I'm in real pain. I'll let you know."

He had told himself to not speak of any promises in that utterance. That was because he still was doubtful if he would really do it.

Robin was startled. Though, she didn't know whether she was satisfied or not. She knew that by 'real pain' he didn't mean physical pain. Also, his more or less statement meant that this subject was going for its end.

Still, she felt flattered that he had opened up to her if even just a little and praised this by once again smiling warmly at him.

The swordsman returned a worn smile but still felt that perhaps he had gone a bit too far with this. He wondered if he was going to regret letting Robin approaching him this much onto life, because it certainly felt like he was doing that. Then again, she was his nakama and even though he hadn't before, he trusted her now. In fact, if someone in the crew had to know about this secret, he would most likely want it to be the archaeologist before him.

Robin thought it may feel good for the swordsman if she took the role of ending the conversation here. She stood up and took two of the bottles laying on the table with her, "Now, we better clean this up, right, Kenshi-san?"

The green-haired man stayed seated a little longer. He was glad that it wasn't going to be much more of a deal than this and snorted at the thought, "Yeah."

* * *

_Hi thur - again! The chapter's name, I know xD_

_Now, I must say that I'm terribly sorry for a lot of things. Firstly, for taking so long to update. My excuses are various. I'm horribly lazy, as always. Also, all my foundation I had for this fic in a separate document is of course gone as well since my laptop got stolen. So it took a while before I got started again. Furthermore, for it being stolen I haven't been in any mood for writing either (actually got really depressed and all gloomy over it for a long time.. no wait, I still am! D: I loved that computer, this new one sucks :o ) and because of that I've also had writer's block all this time._

_Besides, it can very well have something to do with that the other crew-members have been gone for too long in the manga/anime now and such I have lost inspiration. I think it's about time they appeared again now, or at least that we get to know more about what's happening to them :o  
Moreover, I've just been dating my tablet too much lately and am focusing on drawing. I just love it xD_

_Secondly, I'm sorry for bringing this subject with 'Robin confessing that she knows about Zoro being hurt' up. You probably knew I had it coming since Robin have been thinking about it but perhaps this was a bit too sudden. Well, all I can blame is my writers block :( I wanted to have more Zoro-Robin moments and couldn't really come up with anything. So I just thought, why not have this coming now if that's the case? Anyway, I hope it didn't turn out too bad. I've seen a lot of people writing about this and of course that's only natural but the interesting part is how different they all are. Personally, I think it would happen just like this (duh, since I wrote it like that). My point is, I don't think he would react too aggressively about it, especially if he almost knew it was coming.  
And, haha, "I figured that I can't just have a whole chapter with only Zoro and Robin talking", yeah, right... Why the hell do I keep doing these things when I've said I wouldn't do them, is this some new kind of double standards? Lol xD_

… _Geez, I talk too much._

_AND, Thirdly, I'm sorry if my writing perhaps have worsened or something. I think my vocabulary is always widening of course but maybe I put in too little detail in this chapter. _

_Phew, anyways. I'm gonna try updating faster in the future 'cause I'm definitely not gonna give up on this story before it's finished._

_So thanks for reading. Reviews will be greatly appreciated since there's nothing more I want than improve myself with this._

_Til next time, take good care ^^_


	15. Sometime, Something, Somehow

**Chapter 15.**

**Sometime, Something, Somehow**

After bidding his raven-haired nakama good night that early morning, the swordsman returned to the men's quarters once again.

He felt that a lot of things were going on in his mind but constantly tried to silence his own thoughts, reasoning that it was only minor matters not actually worthy of this much attention. In any case, it had to wait some more - it was yet early to completely grasp the happenings of this night.

The swordsman first went to the bathroom to swiftly wash his face, then to look at his own reflection in the mirror. Drops of water were slowly running down over his brute features to at last drip down at the sink.

Metaphorically, he felt that drops of trouble slowly but surely were leaving him. He was washing it off like it only had been dirt all this time. Steadily, it felt more and more okay to let things go, to just simply leave everything to chance.

He could see himself somewhat smirking but it was not yet time to investigate why. Leaving things hanging seconds away from completely reaching his sense. He started taking his white tank top off while entering the dorm where his male nakama both silently and noisily were resting.

While tossing the clothing on the floor beneath his own bed, the swordsman got a faint feeling that something was missing and found his own hand reaching towards his chest. Indeed, the bandages he had now gotten so used too - even though they were still annoying - were gone.

_That's right, that damn bastard of a lizard swallowed them..._

It struck the man how rare it was for Chopper to forget about bandaging him up again. Still, he didn't care to really give it any thought since he only enjoyed the slightly more freedom he got in movement.

Curiously, he gently pushed the spot under his hand as to see if there miraculously had been some kind of change, but it was no good after all. He could feel a bitter sting lingering throughout his whole upper body, thus he softened the pressure again.

He noticed that the smirk on his face had surprisingly yet to wear of, he kept it while quietly snorting for himself, _Still not any better, huh?_

Zoro reflected upon the matter but conclusively only winded up feeling rather stupid for getting any kind of hopes up. He hadn't, after all, done anything in particular that could actually be good for his health recently, rather the opposite.

He almost felt guilty in yet a humorous sense when he thought about the week with countless amounts of alcohol available for him from now on. He looked down to where his hand rested on his chest, _I'm certainly ain't fair to you, eh, stupid body?_

Zoro climbed up to his hammock and posited himself recumbent on his back, head leaning on his knot together hands.

Now, while staring up at the ceiling, he finally let it indulge him all at once.

As his thoughts slowly reached him, he couldn't pinpoint exactly what he felt. He was sure of only one thing, he was – relieved. He didn't know why really and how. It had to have something to do with the happenings of this night and he constantly tried to connect things together. It was just that it didn't really matter for now because in all it's simplicity, he was feeling – relieved. As if a burden had loosened from his shoulders, freeing him from a load of pain on a throw in.

Some part of his mind told him that it was all good and perhaps the thinking didn't need to extend any further. After all, did it matter? Maybe, maybe not. It couldn't harm to go further in his thinking either since the only thing he felt obliged to do around this time was to sleep.

As good as it may have sounded, to just sleep, the swordsman decided that this still wasn't something he could just overlook.

Thus he shut his eyes, resolute to consider thoroughly whatever would cross his mind.

There was... Robin.

Robin was crossing his mind.

She knew.

Why didn't it bother him more? How could this affect him this little? Had it really been so that he had subconsciously knew that the woman at least had known something? So in a sense, he had been slightly prepared? Still, it didn't explain why exactly he was feeling like all this was okay. Wait... was it not okay?

He felt his eyebrows twitch by his own resolution. So know he was unsure of his own rules, oh great. This had to be cleared up at least.

The one to decide whether something is right or wrong, good or bad, okay or not – was Roronoa Zoro. He was the judge of his own life and world. So what was okay? It was okay to feel happy but was it okay to feel happy about anything? Certainly not, of course, since he couldn't feel happy about something that made him sad, but all that was only made up by his own ideals and morals. So had those changed or what exactly was going on?

To at least have a small dirt of ground to stand on, the swordsman counted up one undeniable fact. Robin knew and even if he would prefer otherwise, things weren't going to change. So where does he go from here? All in all, things weren't just suddenly going to be much different from before. Somewhat eased by that fact, he relaxed and let his mind wander off more freely.

Undoubtedly, his relationship with Robin sure was getting interesting. They had been spending quiet some time together these past days. It was kind of startling for the swordsman knowing this but he couldn't just deny it either. Robin was this much of a character and he hadn't thoroughly noticed until know? It was rather unfair actually.

Damn, was it nice to actually have a reasonable talk with someone for once in a while. If it was good or bad to let her in this much onto his life wasn't really something he cared about any longer. He just wasn't used to converse this much and although it was both new and sometimes tiresome, he had to admit it was a bit exciting as well.

Could she even be the person he knew the least about on this ship? Perhaps he could count Brook out on that since he newly joined, though.

Zoro gave out a comfortable sigh. There was still so much to learn, about almost everything too. So much he didn't know and also frankly didn't want to know. Yet he felt glad, that there was so much left in the world for him. So many days more to enjoy.

He had company as well. He didn't have to enjoy the wonders of life alone. He had nakama. Although not wanting to rely too much on them. Though, thinking about this made him realize exactly how much he actually _was_ relying on them already. He couldn't navigate, he couldn't cook, he couldn't build things or even help maintaining the Sunny, he wasn't inventive, he didn't knew much about medicine or music and he certainly didn't knew much about history. What could he do? He was a swordsman, he could handle swords. As little or much that helped the others, Zoro didn't feel incompetent or bad for not being of better use in any way. Besides, he knew he wasn't at all useless.

He could simply be, and for once, after the incident at Thriller Bark, Zoro truly felt – relieved.

He snorted again for himself, still smirking. Quite bewildered of why he was even thinking of such pointless things, the swordsman could only conclude that Zoro was Zoro, Zoro felt good for mostly unknown reasons and Zoro would now stop giving a damn and peacefully go to sleep.

* * *

Everyone got a rather late awakening that morning due to the lack of sleep the night before. Sanji had as usual prepared for them a delicious breakfast and as everyone was seated at the table, it was okay to grab in.

After first stuffing both his plate and mouth full of food, Luffy turned to the navigator and opened his mouth to say something. However, before he could do so, Nami grabbed both his upper and lower lip and shut them tight again.

"Swallow first or I won't understand you!"

Luffy continued in doing as he was told and swallowed his mouthful of food in one visibly big gulp. An instant later, Nami released his lips.

The captain let out a relieved sigh, "Ah, Nami, what're we going to do today?"

Nami moved to rest her cheek on her right hand before she answered, "Hmm, we don't have anything planned so it's basically all free time again."

She saw as her captain started pouting of the thought of nothing fun to do so she continued on, "However, I was thinking that maybe we could try out one of the towns restaurants tonight? Most of them have bars as well."

Murmurs of acceptance and agreement came from the others.

"Sounds like a pleasant idea, Kōkaishi-san," said the archaeologist.

She gracefully moved her cup of coffee towards her mouth and took a small taste of the hot beverage. Apparently it was not yet sweet enough, thus she got herself a lump of sugar to stir into the drink before she spoke again.

"So? Do you have one particular in mind?"

"Well, not really but there sure are plenty of them, we'll have no problem finding a good one."

"So, to specify the choices," Sanji suggested, "Is there anything special that someone feel like eating tonight?"

"Meat!" yelled their captain.

"Figures..."

Their red-eyed visitor broke out coughing, seemingly having swallowed her food to fast. However, the shipwright sitting beside her gave her a proper thump in the back which seemed to solve the problem, "Whoo, thanks!"

The woman paused to take a few breaths, then she grinned and continued, "I know a good place! I went there when I first got here. Food's good and their sake's the cheapest, it's still good, though!"

"Cheap sake, eh?" Snickered the swordsman, a teasing grin growing on him, "Oh, I don't know... Maybe I'll just stay here again. It's all free, after all. Or maybe I could bring it to town? A bit troublesome, though. It would be a lot to carry."

"Bastard!" Snarled Sanji, "You better watch what you're saying or you'll be without any food at all!"

"What, eyebrows? I thought we were going to eat out for tonight, eh?"

"Oh, I wouldn't mind not needing to prepare food for the likes of you every day from now on. Does that sound good to-"

"QUIET!" Yelled Nami and bumped her fist in the table.

Giving out a small chuckle but then ignoring the usual quarrels from her two nakama, Robin asked the navigator again, "So? When will we set off for tonight?"

Nami calmed herself down after successfully silencing her two noisy nakama – the blonde swiftly apologizing before turning temporarily mute, the green-haired snorting as he continued his meal instead.

"I suppose we could gather here again around 7 o clock," said the navigator and now put on a brief smile, "Until then, as I said before, you're free to do whatever you want."

The little reindeer smiled as he asked, "Then, what will you do until 7, Nami?"

"I think I'll go measure parts of this island today," she answered and smiled back at the little doctor.

"A-a-alone?" The cook asked worryingly, "But Nami-san, it's dangerous for a delicate lady to walk alone in this-"

"Who are you calling delicate!" Argued Nami, "I can handle myself just fine."

Another small chuckle escaped the tall raven-haired woman, "Don't worry kokku-san, I'm still interested in investigating the island further," She turned to Nami again, "It's okay if I go with you, ne?"

"Of course!" The navigator grinned.

"No way!" stuttered Sanji in objection, "Both my precious ladies walking of alone again? Let me accompany you!"

Nami sighed, "Why do we have to go through this every time? We'll be fine! Besides, you couldn't anyway. You promised Luffy you'd go with him and Brook fishing, remember?"

Franky turned to the two mentioned ones, "Ah, I'll join you as well! Got nothing better to do for now."

"Ah, great Franky!"

"Yo-ho-ho, I can feel my heart getting excited! Though, I don't have a heart... Skull joke! Yo-ho-ho-ho!"

"But-but Nami-swaan~!" pleaded the cook, "I won't be at ease if I'm not assured your safety!"

"How about Usopp, then?"

The long-nosed man turned his attention away from his meal,"Wha? Me?"

"_Usopp_! How can I be at ease if _Usopp's_ coming with you!"

"Oi! That's rude, Sanji!" shrieked the sniper while spitting food out, clearly being insulted, before his expression suddenly changed to a confident one instead. He rose to take a stance with one foot at the table, thereafter swiftly moved his straight arm slightly upwards, one finger pointing at the ceiling. The aura smarmy heroic.

"Fear not my friends, because I, the great captain Usopp, will accompany you and protect you from any harm!"

The reindeer watched amused at the black-haired man, "So cool, Usopp~!"

* * *

Later that day, Roronoa Zoro was not quite happy as he was walking.

Chopper, after noticing that the swordsman wasn't appropriately bandaged and thus forced some new ones upon him, had stayed behind to make another round of healing herbs. The rest, besides from their visitor, had already left the ship for either exploring or fishing.

The swordsman himself had wandered off in another direction than the others and was now heading towards the big meadow, well, at least he thought he was.

Actually, he was bewildered by why he were walking here and now when he could be taking a nap back at the ship instead. He had already tried that for a moment though, but somehow he had felt uncomfortable by only being still.

All the day til now, Zoro had constantly caught himself tapping his fingers or feet against some kind of hard material. He was feeling extremely restless. Even now, he was restraining himself not to start tap on one of his katana. It wasn't very strange though, thinking about how he would usually perform some kind of physical activities at these times.

That was in fact why he had figured he should do something instead of just sitting around. Therefore he had sneaked out to secretly do some training by himself again.

Only problem was; he wasn't quite by himself.

The red-eyed woman walking besides him apparently had decided that she would accompany him wherever he would go in lack of anything else to do. Now, as they walked, she was occasionally telling him random things about her self, about things she had experienced or whatever random thing she could even think of.

And although it didn't really bother the swordsman, the fact that she was practically still a stranger made it hard to completely relax. She didn't seem to be a person who'd tell on others for the fun of it but he wasn't quite sure, still. When he thought about it, though, it didn't really matter what the crew found out as long as they couldn't restrain him from what he wanted to do.

That's why Zoro had planned on training even if the woman beside him were to witness it.

"Mm, is that so," he answered in an uninterested tone while not really knowing what she was telling him.

The swordsman payed now more attention to his whereabouts, stopping in his tracks to take a look around. He thought about it for a minute but in the end he really couldn't remember seeing the plants growing at his feet before or the strangely shaped rocks spreading around a few trees. The trees looked like those he had seen when being in the forest before and now, when taking a thorough look around, he could actually recognize that they were actually at one of the tips of the half-moon shaped forest surrounding part of the island he recalled Nami had shown them on a map before.

It was deserted and only by far he could see small silhouettes resembling the town.

"Oi, do you recognize this place?" he asked the green haired woman.

Kiwa stopped talking to take a simple look around before responding, "No, where are we?"

"Tch, how should I know? I'm the one asking you!"

"Haha, are we lost then?"

"N-no! Town's over there," he pointed it out, "see?"

"Ah, you're right. Why'd we come here anyway?"

"Well, I guess this place is as good as any other," Zoro mumbled to himself and then answered Kiwa, "To train."

"Eh? Why couldn't you've just done that back at the ship?"

In a troubled tone, he said, "I'm not allowed to... Besides, I'd prefer to do it out here."

"Oh? Why?"

Zoro sighed, "Damn you're inquisitive." Rather than telling her all about his injuries and how he got them, he simply pulled down his tank top a bit, revealing his newly bandaged chest, "Because of these."

"Ah, you're in the process of healing then, I see."

"Unhun... Now then." He walked over towards a stone as big as his own height, sat down beside it, simply picked it up with his right hand and then started lifting it up and down in a frequent manner. It was hard but he didn't let it show.

"Oh, impressive there."

The swordsman kept quiet.

"Can I do it too, I wonder?" Kiwa walked over to another stone in her own size and bended down to get a good grip at it. She adjusted her legs before putting all her strength into one all-out attempt to lift it. She lifted the stone, roaring out of intense effort and finally could hold it above her head.

Legs shaking from the strain, she looked at Zoro and grinned, "See! See! I'm lifting it! Haha, I can do this all day! No prople-!"

Before she could finish, her leg wobbled and caused her to loose her balance. Her efforts of stabilizing the weight again were useless and Zoro could just purposely sit still and watch as she fell backwards. There was a big thump as she landed with the stone on top of her, it comically covered everything but her arms and legs.

The swordsman waited a few more moments until her hand as expected started smacking furiously the heavy weight on top of her. He sighed while putting his own stone down and then walked over to easily remove the stone from her.

"Bwaah! I thought I was gonna die!"

Zoro rolled his eyes, "You're hopeless."

* * *

"There, this must be the highest spot on this island, I think," breathed the navigator as she with her arms wiped of what little sweat had gathered on her forehead.

"I do believe it is, Kōkaishi-san," said the archaeologist as she walked to stand beside her only female nakama.

"It's not very steep but you can still see almost around the whole island," said Nami and took out a notebook to scribble something down, "The island isn't that big after all, with binoculars I bet we could even see what the others are up to, hehe."

Robin turned around to her other nakama who had now joined them where they stood, "How is it going, Nagahana-kun?"

Panting as he was, he managed to stutter between breaths his answer of being fine, "Ju.. Just leave ev... everything to me... the great... great captain Usopp~!"

The tall woman chuckled as she unburdened the sniper from the bag pack he was carrying. They had brought along some coffee and cakes which the cook had prepared. He had also made Usopp carry both it and Nami's instruments under the declaration that no woman should have to strain themselves when there was a man around and had then provokingly askied the sniper whether he really was a man or not.

Robin started unpacking the bag, feeling peckish about another cup of coffee again, "Anyone else want some?", she asked.

"Is... is there not any.. water or something there?" breathed Usopp.

"Ah, did you know?" asked the navigator as she scrabbled down a few more notes, "There's going to be a big party in town soon. I can't recall when it was, maybe 3-4 days from now."

"Oh, is that so? Are they celebrating anything in particular?" asked Robin.

"They're just throwing some kind of festival. I don't really know why but we're lucky, eh? I figured that we could stay for it even though the log's already set by then."

"Sounds good to me!" Laughed the sniper after gulping down the water given to him.

* * *

"Hey, we both wanna train, so why don't we spar a little?" asked the red-eyed woman after rapidly recovering from being crushed under the stone now placed beside her.

The swordsman, who'd gotten back to his place and where now doing the same heavy lifting with his other arm, in response just lifted an eyebrow as he was staring at her tiredly.

"C'mon! Why not? You're obviously not in your best state," she honestly argued, "and I have my regenerative powers - It won't be troublesome even if you slash me in half!"

Zoro snickered a little, "You sure about that? Then how the hell do you die?"

Kiwa laughed, "I don't know! I haven't really died yet, have I? Haha!"

The swordsman grew a grin, "Hmm, that's right."

He put the stone down and placed both his hands on his knees widened by his sitting-position, "But we better not. If the cock finds out he'll kill me."

"Pooh! Why's that? I'm the one telling you it's fine, right?"

"I dunno, I can't help he's a woman-loving freak, now can I?"

"Haha! I'm not the least lady-like, I shouldn't even count as a woman!" Kiwa said, sounding as if she were proud of it.

She walked over to the swordsman and drew both her short swords to aim at him, "Now, c'mon, maybe I ain't the best but it'll be training what so ever, right? Perhaps you could even learn me a thing or two. I don't know 'cause I don't know your skill... yet, haha."

Zoro sighed but he couldn't resist feeling a bit happy about doing a bit sparring, "Fine. Don't you regret it," he said and drew out Wadō Ichimonji from its white scabbard.

* * *

_I'm late! Again! Couldn't keep my promise this time either. And I do have a lot of excuses but let's just skip them for once in a while. They're pretty useless anyway and I'm sure you've already figured I'm a real lazy bastard._

_So what did you think of this chapter? It was another calm one but I like those moments. Apart from the first part (if that even counts) there wasn't much Zoro/Robin but I'll get to it again in the future._

_Oh, anyhow. I think I might get going faster with this from now on since the interesting parts soon are coming up. I always get hundreds of different ideas to write down instead of actually writing on the story xD Well, well. Enough wasting of your lives, be well!_

**_Will Zoro ever figure himself out? Will this story ever get to the fucking point already? Will Slipmaskin ever keep her promises? (Probably not) Find out next time on – The Blurry Search!_**


	16. Sane

**Chapter 16.**

**Sane  
**

"Yo-ho-ho! I got a bite! I think it's a big one!"

The group of four Strawhats consisting of the captain, shipwright, musician and cook were currently located by a big jetty at the seashore pretty far away from both the town and the Sunny.

They hadn't got as much as a single nibble the whole time they had been there – and yet that would be at the most by an hour now, the cook had figured. They had still gotten restless pretty fast.

Even though this was something they were doing in lack of anything else to entertain themselves with, this was different from when one did it as they were traveling on sea. Somehow they couldn't ignore the impatience gnawing deep inside them – on some it was more visible than on others. Luffy had after just a few minutes without action started with his regular complaints, and after some time more he had literary been unable to sit still, even though he himself was, he managed to jump up and down on his buttocks where he was sitting.

Being the most impatient of the other tree, the cook had on his part before long started lecturing his captain. Brook had, although not being too happy about the early visible outcome of their whole little "adventure" mostly been quiet but had on occasions positively spoken one and another comment about the weather being nice or that soon they would get a bite, trying to keep his comrades hopes up.

The shipwright also hadn't spoken much yet but was mostly feeling bored. Almost of the same rate as his captain, just that he didn't express it like he did. Other than bored, he couldn't really express what he was feeling, only that he wasn't as super as he wanted to.

The whole event was getting rather irritating, actually, for all of them. Just as they had almost given up, the line connected to Brook's fishing-rod had gone from slack to tense in only a second. It had come as a surprise for all of them, and what more was the heaviness from the instant dragging.

The skeleton now desperately tried to stand his ground as he tried to hold back whatever had raised to the bait (which had consisted of sausages.) His feet started to scrape against the hard tree as both him and the hooked creature resisted strongly. It seemed however as the latter had the advantage in strength and Brook was hopelessly dragged against the edge.

"Hold onto it, Brook!" yelled the black-haired captain as he and the others tossed away at the ground whatever they were holding, raised themselves and grabbed on to the struggling musician and helped him pull back.

"You better not let go of it!"

"What is it! It's so strong!" cried Franky and let out a roar as he put all of his strength in holding back his skeleton nakama.

"Damn it, we're not giving up! I'll hold here as well!" said Sanji firmly as he grabbed onto Brook's rod instead and started pulling with all his might.

"UUUWAAAAAAAAH! PULL!" yelled Luffy.

Then, slowly but surely, in order to bring the resistant creature to land, the group reversed in their tracks as they were winning against their almost-catch.

"Yes! It's working!"

"Harder! Keep pulling!"

"IIIII'M PUUUULLLIIING!"

Steadily and faster then before the four Strawhats managed to back off the jetty and on to firm ground. Soon they saw a frequently growing shadow underneath the water and eagerly they all pulled even harder.

"I'm starting to see something!"

"It's big! Yo-ho-ho! So big!"

When they had almost reached the thin forest behind them, a furious rampage slowly started to visualize itself beneath the surface. Water splashed in all directions and violent waves reached the shoreline as the struggling ruckus came closer and closer to reaching the surface.

When it did, the first thing visible was a long red spike and it didn't take long until more like it followed, gaining in numbers.

"Wohoo! We almost have it!" yelled Luffy victoriously and started grinning as he too put all his last effort into pulling further.

"Wait!" Sanji said and suddenly released his grip of the rod, "Let go!"

"HUH?" the others uttered simultaneously as they hopelessly flew forwards due to lack of manpower. They landed in a thump but immediately rose to dig their heels down in the sand.

"What do you mean 'let go', lovely cock!" yelled Franky, "We almost have it!"

"No, let go now! Don't you see?" Sanji yelled back, "That's the damn big lizard that attacked us yesterday!"

"WHAT!" shrieked the others and all let go of whatever they were holding, rod or skeleton, at the same time.

Everything remained quiet for a few moments as all awaited what would happen. As time went by, the fuzz under the water soon quieted down, the red spikes sinking, the shadow shrinking, it all ended with a few bubbles that burst as they hit the surface. The only noise now came from the rod which darted against the sand to keep up with the apparently diving lizard. In the end it got stuck at a pillar of the jetty and eventually snapped in two halves from the force.

It didn't take long until the black-haired captain broke out in a rage and furiously began jumping around, "What the hell! Lizard-bastard, come back here and fight!"

* * *

"Phew! Now when that's done I would want to go around the island," said Nami, closed her notebook and then zipped up the backpack which held her instruments, "I won't be able to do it all in a day, even though the island's not _that_ big but I can do the rest some other time."

Robin and Usopp who'd been seated while the navigator had done her work now rose up. The sniper, figuring he'd be forced to anyway, walked forward to grab the bag before he was told a thing.

"So, which way are we heading?" asked Robin, but before letting the orange-haired woman answer, she stated her own business, "I'm interested in going that way," thus she pointed in a direction slightly right of the one they originally came from, "I haven't been able to explore those areas before."

"Alright! Might as well start somewhere," Nami agreed.

The group walked for a while over the even meadow, warmly coloured in tones of pink and yellow. Small winds, having refreshing roots from the ocean nearby, passed by now and then, helping the strawhats to keep their cool from today's unmercifully hot sun.

When arriving at the foot of the forest they choose not to head any further in but to follow the edge, stopping to measure sometimes, stopping to explore sometimes and once in a while take small brakes to catch their breaths.

"Oh, the forest is thinning out now it seems," stated the archaeologist as the group of three currently were walking again.

"It really is a strangely shaped island," said Nami, "The forest is at its thickest at the middle and then seemingly it slowly thins out to both sides at the island, there's not a single tree in town or at the docks."

The sniper furrowed an brow, "Yes, but it doesn't matter right? I mean, it's interesting and all bu-"

Then Usopp abruptly stopped in his tracks and held back both Robin's and Nami's shoulders. He was all ears, shifting his head little by little in every direction, and he wondered, "What was that sound?"

"What?" said the navigator and imitated his long-nosed nakama, "I didn't hear any-"

"Wait, there it was again!"

"I heard it this time, Kōkaishi-san," stated the tall archaeologist, "It sounded as a clash of some kind."

"That's..." Nami waited until she could hear the sound as well and then she realized, "That's swords clashing! Gah, that idiot!"

"My, I believe it must be kenshi-san going at it, nee?" Robin chuckled at the thought.

"B-but! Who.. He must be fighting someone, right?" stammered Usopp.

The navigator slowly shook her head in slight protest, "Can we never get some peace around here...?" Then she sighed, "Alright, let's find out."

The group started jogging towards the clashing sounds.

* * *

At the same time, Kiwa jumped back from the collide with the green-haired swordsman and paused. Her latest attempt of giving a blow towards his stomach had been easily blocked and she herself had just merely gotten away from the mans fierce counterattack – with another scratch against her forehead.

"Damn, you're good!" she breathed and nudged the wound with the back of her hand in order to see the exact degree of the injury, "You're not at your fullest health, you're not trying your best either and I still got plenty of problems."

"Heh, what gibberish are you jabbering," stated Zoro who'd by now gotten quite committed into their sparring, "Your using the back of your sword. You can't possibly be giving it your all either."

"You noticed? Impressive, I say."

The swordsman had so far only drawn Wadō Ichimonji. He wasn't quite underestimating the woman, rather testing out her strength gradually. He was pretty sure she was doing something similar in order to test him out as well.

He'd grown eager due to this, it felt especially good because he hadn't been practicing swordsmanship seriously ever since Thriller Bark. His injuries did surprisingly not hurt at a critical state yet either, there was just the usual stinging and aching throghout his body, and that was something he'd gotten fairly used to by now. Even if his actual wound would start aching horribly, he had no plans on stopping, this was just too much fun. Besides, he needed to train – in order for both his mind and body to stay sane.

When he gave it a thought, this was also a pretty good opportunity to test out the problem-child Shuusui further, but before turning more serious, he asked, "By the way, is it really okay to hurt you? I mean, you still feel pain, right?"

He had totally relied on her ensuring words from before, not really re-thinking until now. He still doubted there would be any problem though.

Kiwa started stretching her arms a bit behind her head, one by one, both still holding her two short katana-like swords, "It's perfectly fine. Think about it, wounds we know are not that dangerous still hurt, but for what reason? It's just how we are made, animal-like instincts telling us to flee from danger. I don't mind pain."

"Yah, I get that part, but I don't want to wound you to the point were your life is at stake. I don't really like getting too serious with people that're not enemies."

He didn't know how true that last part really was. He didn't want to hurt his nakama. Even with the stupid cook, he still held back, fought with the sheaths, with the flat side or the nack of the blades. There would never be any blood spilling.

In this case, he didn't know what he considered the woman before him as. Not nakama, and he even thought that merely friends still was too early. They hadn't known each other for long, after all. If it weren't for the devil fruit of hers, he would never go even this far fighting her.

Kiwa gave it a thought, "I see, but as I've been telling you; It's fine. First of all, it have rubbed off on me – thoroughly. I can't remember ever being in much pain. If you chop my legs off, it would just sting for a second."

The woman rubbed her neck excusably, forgetting the sword still being in her hand. A rip was heard as she realized her short katana pointed down and not up.

"Dammit! Now I ripped my shirt, didn't I?"

She turned around, absurdly trying to look at her back, for conformation from the swordsman. The latter sarcastically thought that there wasn't much of a shirt to be ripped to begin with, it barely covered her chest – where there by the way didn't seem to be much to cover whatsoever.

Her point were proven even more though, seeing a small sipper of blood coming out from an otherwise seemingly big accidental cut. The girl didn't even notice it and was only concerned with her shirt.

She turned to him again, ignoring what had happened only now. Relaxed as ever, she said, "Anyway, I would just think it'd be kind of you not to chop anything off since it'll be pretty messy reattaching things again and it would take an unnecessary minute."

Zoro sighed, "Yeah, I get it, you don't mind pain and such, but you can still die _somehow_, right?"

"Ah, I don't know, but I guess so." Jestingly, probably hopeful in triggering the man to continue, she laughed and said, "Silly man, don't worry about it, I promise you I won't die by the little likes of your blades."

"Yeah, yeah," Zoro raised the hand that didn't currently held the sword, telling her to stop explaining, "I get it. I don't have to worry, then," not that he had anyway.

Kiwa eagerly looked as the man put the white handle of his katana in his mouth instead, and then she lit up even more than before seeing as he drew out two other swords as well.

"So, let's rise the level a bit, yeah?"

"Cool! Sounds good to me!"

* * *

"There he is!"

The group made out of Nico Robin, Nami and Usopp soon arrived to where the forest thinned out completely, still a few hundred metres away but yet in eyesight of the two sparring people. Ironically, they came just in time to witness Zoro swing the heavy blade of Shuusui down in an intense strike at Kiwa's right shoulder.

Neither of them could hear the encouraging words from the woman as she staggered a bit backwards. They could just watch in horror as a spurt of blood left the wound where she had been hit.

"Kiwa! That's Kiwa! Wh-why are they fighting!" the sniper confusedly stuttered.

The archaeologist choose not to judge the situation yet but to observe it further instead. She and the sniper started walking down the little hill before them to reach the two fighting ones.

Nami, however, started running towards them, hands waving in the air, "Stop! What are you doing! Why are you fighting... for?" The navigator trailed off as both the swordsman and swordswoman did indeed stop and looked at her questionably.

"Oh, you're here?" spoke Zoro, Wadō Ichimonji gritted between his teeth.

Nami and Usopp went speechless for a few seconds.

The green-haired man took out the katana from his mouth and formed a confused expression, "What?"

"What _are_ you doing! You- you just wounded her real bad!" shrieked the navigator.

"Huh? We're just having a calm little spar, that's all," said the swordsman and furthered his expression by raising an eyebrow.

Nami once again went silent and her gaze turned to the green-haired woman instead. In response, the latter just grinned dumbly and nodded, "Yeah!"

"B-b-u but your.. just now!" uttered the sniper as both him and the raven-haired woman also arrived before them.

"Eh, that's nothing!" Kiwa confirmed her illogical state of health by pulling her sweater aside, showing nothing but mere skin, "See?"

"Oh... right..."

"But still.. You!" Nami irritatingly yelled and pointed at Zoro, "You shouldn't be training! I'm so gonna tell Chopper this!"

The swordsman rolled his eyes and sighed, "Whatever."

A small chuckle, which managed to ease the mood, came from the archaeologist as she took another few steps closer to her brute-faced nakama. She folded her arms together and smiled calmly, seemingly amused, "So, how is it going for you?"

The laxly dressed man didn't know how he should handle her question. He hoped she wasn't implying anything in particular over his health, yet, even if she did, he knew he wouldn't feel very bothered anyway. Now Zoro could reassure himself that even if she was, it was simply because she was interested in his progress, not anxious over his state.

In the end, he simply couldn't resist smiling back, showing a bit more softness in his facial looks, and he answered, "I'm guessing we're doing fine, actually." He gave his training partner a look, "right woman?"

"Always!"

Then he swiftly turned his gaze back to Robin, "You've found out anything interesting yet yourself, then?" he asked her, not even thinking about his words. He wasn't sure why he was even interested, some part of him just really wanted to know about her day.

The raven-haired woman wielded her left arm out elegantly at her side, still holding the crook of it with her other, "Well, it's a bit tragic but most traces of anything historic is either already too old to gain knowledge from without proper tools or they mysteriously missing, moved from the place or perhaps crushed to fragments."

She folded her hand back again and softly sighed, the genuine smile yet to wear of from her lips though, "I got a few clues however."

"Ah, s'that so. It's like a puzzle then," answered Zoro who all of sudden had sheathed his swords and too stood with his arms folded. He inspected the tall woman warmly, he managed to wonder how it was even possible to look as naturally graceful.

His thoughts were interrupted by an orange-haired navigator however, "Hey! What is this?" she accused, and, having her arms crossing each other frequently, pointed at Zoro and Robin, "You're.. You're interacting too smoothly! Or something! It's weird..."

Usopp blinked and formed an expression of realization, "Ah. They do. Strange..."

"Hmm?" Zoro and Robin simultaneously uttered as they turned their attention towards the rest of the group.

Their visitor, who'd abruptly rose from having laid down a short while, walked over to the navigator and sniper and hooked them both from behind in some awkward kind of embrace, "It's fine, isn't it? People should get along well! A-hahaha!"

"You.. You're not getting it." Both Nami and Usopp shook their right hand, rejecting her statement.

* * *

As he held out the crushed herbs from the mortar on to a paper placed on his table in the infirmary, Chopper let out a brief sigh to his side – careful not to blow any of the last medicine out of place.

He happily proceeded in carefully letting both sides of the paper meet up with each other and then tilted it and let the substance slide down a funnel and at last down into a little flask.

He corked up the small container of glass and then put it up amongst some others on a shelf. After hopping down from his tall chair he stood still on the floor gazing up towards them. A smile full of triumph soon filled up his face, being proud of his own achievements for the day.

The little reindeer let out a cheerful laughter and then walked out from his room to hop up and lean out from the rail of the Thousand Sunny. He inspected the small waves continuously wash over each other and then to softly crash into the ship. Following with his eyes one in particular big one crashing against a pillar of the massive jetty that the ship were docked to, Chopper noticed the guard they had hired.

After inspecting him thoroughly he noted that it was indeed the same man that had been standing at the same spot and had not moved so much as an inch for these last couple of days.

He looked real and at very rare occasions he also blinked, there was no doubt that he wasn't some sort of replica statue. Chopper thought it was strange that a guard could stand there hour after hour and not even get sleepy or hungry. Or maybe he was but didn't let it show no matter what.

They were paying the little welcoming company a little amount for him to stand there but the little doctor now started to feel rather worried for the man. Perhaps he was poor and this job was all he could get, considering the small fee to hire a guard per day, his income couldn't be very high.

He was a big and muscular man dressed in a black suit with amplified shoulders, turquoise shirt and a silver tie which fitted quite well with his short and likewise coloured hair. The look didn't gave Chopper the impression that he was poor, though, and his brute face made the doctor feel slightly too scared to go talk to him.

Then something else caught the reindeer's sight and the dying smile soon caught up to his dimples again. An uneven group of four strawhats were sluggishly heading towards him, seemingly barehanded.

"Oi! Luffy, everyone!" he called out and waved towards them. When they had gotten closer he stated, "You're back early, it didn't went well?"

Sanji, who were right in the middle of lightening a cigarette – after he succeeded – answered, "You could say that."

"Grrr! That bastard! Always running away!" muttered their captain as the group climbed aboard.

"What happened?" wondered Chopper.

The shipwright took a seat at the stairway and told the little reindeer what they had been trough.

"It appeared again? Is anyone hurt?"

"No, no," assured Sanji, "As Franky said, it never even raised above the surface."

"Ah!" Luffy squat down beside Chopper, "You understand animals, right? Did it say anything last time?"

The question struck the reindeer and he got a horrified expression, "I didn't pay attention!" then he sighed and shook his head, "I guess I was too chocked to make anything out from its roars."

The blonde cook blew out some smoke and then nodded, "I see. Then, if we see him again, be sure to catch up what that nuisance wants."

"Un!"

"Shall we have some music while waiting for the others?" suggested the skeleton, violin already in his grasp.

* * *

_A pretty short chapter, this was. ED* Or what the hell am I saying xD It's the biggest but one thus far, but it felt kinda short, haha. * And I said I was soon coming for the interesting parts, well, at least the ones I think will be most interesting to write about. I don't know what you're thinking ;D But I felt that it would be nicer to save some parts for the next chapter instead.  
_

_But hey, pretty fast upload for being me, right? I'm mighty proud, I say. A shame I didn't make any promises this time around xD A-haha, I might as well not._

_I'm happy you're still with me on this, thanks for all the support I've gotten thus far :)  
_


	17. Lurking

**Chapter 17.**

**Lurking **

The swift and beautiful tunes of a violin reached the group of five approaching the Thousand Sunny. It wasn't long after the explorers had met up with the swordsman and swordswoman that they all had decided that they could might as well return to the ship. There was still plenty of time before everyone were supposed to meet up, but since the others were back too they could just head to town earlier.

Nami and Usopp were still holding the red-eyed woman by both sides. Luckily, she had not resisted the least but happily followed them all the way from where they had quietly grabbed her. She had been quiet enough too, as promised – bribed with all cakes that had remained in their backpack.

After a while, the sniper had thought that it would've been okay to let her walk herself and had made eye-contact with his orange-haired nakama, then exchanged the invisible words. But Nami's warning glares had again convinced him to not let go of Kiwa's right shoulder.

Curiosity, it must be, had Usopp thought. As they had distanced themselves from Robin and Zoro by walking in front of them by quite a lot the meters, the sniper had came to understand that they could still hear their chattering. Nami had doubtlessly been curious, to the extent where her fingers must had itched, even.

Attempting not to disturb their conversation in any way, she had wanted the blunt Kiwa out of the picture. Usopp could still see her eyes gleam intensely as she listened in carefully, her ears seemed to twitch at every little word that escaped either the archaeologist or swordsman.

He could understand her suspicions even though he didn't care for gossip as much. What he himself heard was mostly relaxed and daily talk, no subject in particular standing out. Any stranger seeing or hearing them would not think of it as unusual at all – but that was just what it was.

As time went on from when they first had grabbed Kiwa, he had started listening more intensely himself. He couldn't help it, he was just that surprised to hear their swordsman even talking this much to anyone at all. However, he had to contradict his own thoughts. This didn't necessarily have to mean something other than the fact that the two had simply gotten closer as nakama. Maybe this was just something he hadn't been fully aware of until now. He knew how the swordsman had been the only one not trusting her fully in the beginning, and while he knew that he did now, the sniper figured that he'd probably been too used by how they interacted before. Perhaps they had been this talkative all the time without him even noticing. Yes, that could in fact be an explanation.

When looking at his orange-haired nakama again, and seeing her eyes sparkling in a way that some would think that she had just found out the most hidden and darkest of all secrets, her lips curved in an wicked and eager grin, twitching all so slightly out of excitement, her grip on Kiwa's shoulder tightening to the verge where any other person would normally cry out from the pain – he knew his contradictions were wrong. They, or rather she, was definitely on to something new.

Even so, the navigator was not quite happy yet. As little as she had expected the two to talk about whatever things lovely couple would perhaps talk about, their subjects lately didn't satisfy her gossip-hungry brain.

Robin had especially much been explaining parts from what surely was a book of some sort. It didn't surprise Nami. What did, though, was the increased interest in the green-haired man's voice as he responded with either comments or questions. Never had she thought that he would gladly listen to such things. How and why? She asked herself over and over. It was just a mere book, and what more, the facts appeared to be only about how to handle a devil fruit. How could it possibly interest Zoro? The one deciding what made sense or not in Nami's brain sure could need a break as of now.

Unless, of course, he liked Robin in such a way that he would actually gladly listen to whatever she said. Maybe the increased interest was because happenings around Robin actually interested him?

Or maybe he was faking his interest in order to get closer to her for whatever other reasons.

Nami shook her head. None of the options sounded the least as her stubborn crew-mate. The latter was exaggerated, even. She knew he would never use someone like that, not anyone of his own nakama in any case.

But what if the first was true? Well, considering the latter to be inconceivable, and unable to find any other reason for this strange behaviour, Nami actually found her self thinking that the first _must_ be true.

She threw back a fast look over her shoulder at the man. Of what she could recognize, his expression was not very different than usual – that self-righteous smirk fastened on his lips as he sometimes snickered amongst her chuckles, the calm posture where his right arm would rest itself at the hilts of his katana's.

They both appeared to be just normal except from the fact that they were this talkative.

iMaybe the man hadn't realized himself?/i Nami thought. Robin was smart, she must have noticed at least, but on the other hand - Nami had to admit - in many ways the swordsman wasn't that stupid either.

Whatever possible explanation that occurred to her just ended up unmercifully puzzling the navigator.

"Are you injured?!" a squeaky voice was heard over Brook's beautiful music, "Is it your foot!? Can't you support it?!"

"WHAT! Kiwa-san is hurt!?" The cook rapidly ran to the edge of the Sunny to see for himself, and the violin soon died out.

Chopper ran towards the divided group at the docking, his little hoofs clapping extraordinary at the wooden material, His face was filled with anxiety.

Realizing the misunderstanding, Nami and Usopp quickly let go of Kiwas shoulders and both started reassuringly waving their hands towards the little doctor, "No, not at all! She's fine!"

"Of course I'm fine!" insisted the green-haired woman, squat down to smile at the reindeer and then frequently patted his hat in a violent manner, "Sheesh, you worry way too much, little guy!"

As the swordsman and archaeologist caught up with them, the latter started to smoothly chuckle at the situation.

"It's very good that you are alert, Seni-san."

The reindeer, as he finally made Kiwa stop hitting him, stood speechless a mere second before he broke out in a dance, waving his hips and arms, "Sh- shut up! Bastard! You can't flatter me! Witch!"

As they all went on board, Sanji soon told them about their own little adventure.

* * *

Just moments later, everybody had gotten themselves ready and were now heading towards town.

Robin had, not for any particular reason, but all the same thought of going out to be at least a bit more glamorous then usual, and thus she had dressed in that fashion. She sometimes wore these types of clothes for everyday use as well, but compared to her earlier jeans and shirt, this was indeed more glamorous.

It was a dark purple short dress with no arms but broad shoulders and a V-neck so deep it almost reached her navel, leaving the middle of her dark bra visible. She left her neck clean but wore a golden bracelet around her right wrist. The heels of her sandalettes clicked along with Nami's louder than the footsteps of the others.

Her female nakama had also chosen an outfit rather dainty instead of her casual clothing. A short silver tube dress, flattered by a few colourful accessories dangling from both wrists and her earlobes - visible due to her hair being put up in a knob.

Unable to keep his eyes off both girls were the cook walking beside them, shooting intense gazes that could only be closest described as heart-shaped arrows. As well as the others, he had not chosen to dress up as much but wore his normal black suit and a yellow shirt. It in itself was still formal enough for most kind of events.

Sometimes he threw Kiwa, who were walking in front of them, a glance too. Though the woman had declined the offer to borrow any fancier clothes, she had gave in when Nami had bothered her about how unsightly her ripped attire was. The green-haired woman had at least approved of a pair of tight blue jeans, low sandalettes and a simple white top. Her swords were still attached in their holders around one leg each of hers. The navigator had already predicted that Kiwa would look rather awkward with diffferent clothing, and she still couldn't get used to the sight.

Like Sanji, the skeleton's attire was also already approved of – all according to Nami as she had thought it'd be a fun idea for the whole group to at least look a bit more stylish than usual. Or rather, as she had _insisted_ for the group to do a makeover to her liking, for tonight. The navigator didn't actually think her request would be followed by Luffy and Franky, however. The first had complained about it since he did not even have such clothes, the latter since apparently he wouldn't feel as super in a boring shirt.

In compensation, the muscular shipwright had changed his normal underwear to black ones. It didn't quite satisfy the red-haired woman though, as seemingly they didn't seem to fit as "super" either. She sighed when seeing her tall nakama before her frequently scratch and rearrange his behind.

Thank heavens for Robin, she thought and glanced at her female friend. Graceful and elegant as ever, the navigator sighed in some sort of relief, thinking that the dark haired beauty would make up for the rest of all the idiots.

She had all indulgence when it came to Chopper, though. Her softer side tended to show the most in front of him, but actually she thought that his cuteness already compensated enough as well.

Furthermore was she at least not that disappointed with Zoro's outfit. It was a big change already seeing him in full-length pants, be they just black jeans or not, and matched with flip flops. Additionally, he wore an armless white shirt, which further gave off a pretty relaxed impression.

The group were walking in the middle of the wide road between houses, shops, restaurants and bars. It was moderately crowded with mostly drunk tourists and inhabitants of the island. The mood was very lively. Although there occurred a few minor street-fights here and there as they went by, most people were happy and friendly. Different sorts of music mixed together could be heard along the hullabaloo coming from respective different houses, restaurants and shops.

The street was lit up by festoon lamps and together with the mixed pink and lilac sky – due to the slowly sinking sun by the horizon – it engulfed the town in warm lights and gave off a sweet atmosphere.

As they were heading further and further into town, a couple of an old man and woman made a quick stop to bow to the group in a greeting. Both being not much taller than Chopper in his smallest form, they looked up as they simultaneously uttered, "Good evening!"

Each of the Strawhats replied in the same manner as they passed them by. Their red-eyed companion did as well but after taking a closer look she stopped in her tracks, turned around and called out to them.

"Wait!"

The little couple turned around.

"Auntie, uncle!"

The little lady brought her hands to each side of her head, looking amused, "Ara, it's you! So you're still on this island then, little girl!"

The little man copied her gesture and said as happily, "We were wondering where you so suddenly ran off to. Have you been doing well?"

Kiwa excusably started rubbing her neck, "You're too kind!" Then she rubbed instead under her nose with a finger, "Hehe, I'm all good! These people have been taking good care of me, you see." She thumbed over her shoulders towards the group.

"Oh, how lovely!" The woman trolled and advanced in thoroughly massaging her cheeks, "You see, we were worried that you would be confused or shocked when you woke up."

The little man spun around a turn in a pirouette and continued, "Yes, and would walk off all by yourself like that! Ho-ho!"

"Oh? Uhm, partially that's kinda true though..." Kiwa muttered, followed by an excusable laugh.

"Ho-ho? Well, maybe that is to be expected after all from someone who was almost eaten the day before," the lady said, now deeply engulfed in doing serious grimaces by dragging her skin at different directions.

"Eaten, what do you mean?" Kiwa asked, continuing her innocent snicker.

The man started twisting on the spot, gently shaking his tush, "Ho! It's not strange that you don't know of it, but you laid unconscious on the ground by the shore and you were about to be eaten by a big monster!"

"Yes, a monster it was!"

"What? Really!?"

"Yes, dear! Fortunately we were able to take you away from it. We didn't have time to explain to you before you left off the other day though," the woman said, her expression was now nothing else than rude.

"Oh, wow. That's... I'm..." Kiwa crouched over in a deep bow before the couple, "Thank you very much for saving me and taking care of me, auntie, uncle! I'm in your debt!"

"Hoo! Don't mention it, little girl!"

The couple chuckled, "Well, we better be going now, or the little man here and I will never get rid of the restlessness, you see, ho-ho!"

"I see. Then, whenever you need help, you contact me somehow, okay? I'm staying at the docks for the moment."

"Will do! Have a good night!"

The man and woman waved as they trolled off again.

Kiwa gave out a small sigh, followed by a shining grin as she turned back towards the Strawhats again.

"Such nice little people!" she uttered and with one hand dried her slightly tearful eyes, "I'm so touched by their kindness!"

The group were all stunned for moments more.

"So? Shall we continue o-"

Nami interrupted her with a hard fist connecting with her head.

"First of all, aren't WE the nice ones here!? And second, you were about to get _eaten_!? And third, how stupid can you be!?"

The raging navigator roared as Usopp and Franky held her back from giving Kiwa another beating.

"Nyyuuu? What do you mean?" asked the green-haired woman as she recovered herself from the punch.

"Kiwa-san," started the archaeologist, "that 'monster' cannot have been no other than the big black lizard who attacked us at the beach yesterday, right?"

"Oh..." Kiwa inspected the ground, wrestling with her mind, until finally she reached realization," OOH!"

Nami who now had calmed herself slightly couldn't do anything but burying her face in her palm.

"Wha- That bastard! The hell does he want from me! I'm gonna go look for it right no-"

"No, you're not!" Interrupting her again, the navigator grabbed hold of the woman's ear, "Now we're going to have a nice dinner at this restaurant you were talking about, and that is FINAL!"

* * *

_Meanwhile, not far away from, but yet not visible for the inhabitants at Liwatura, in a mighty fort resting upon high and pointy cliffs..._

There was a knocking on the sturdy black door before it was swiftly opened, a slim man came in, saluted and reported, "The scouts have returned!"

"They sure took their sweet time," answered a resolute and seedy, yet gentle, voice, "Well, call them in."

Three beaten up men stumbled in and lined up, "Reporting in, sir!" Called one of them as he saluted with the opposite arm, his other being wrapped up in bandage.

The older man was standing in front of a wall behind an equally sturdy and black desk. He slowly answered the scouts with the same gesture.

"Ganjouk-dono... We're over here," the first man to come in noted carefully.

"Huh?" The man looked around at different angles, "Well, how am I suppose to know that when I cannot see! Do you see any logic in that, ... – who're you again?"

"Uhm, no... And I'm Carlos, sir."

"Ah, the new one! I feel sorry for you, but do any of you have some matches?"

"W-wha..?" stuttered the scouts confusedly.

"Matches, Ganjouk-dono?" Carlos questioned.

"Yes, matches! I can't see a thing! Didn't I tell you?"

Carlos and the scouts looked at each other with puzzled faces.

"Uhm, then..." One of the scouts took out a package of matches from his pocket and limped forward to hand them over, "Here are some, sir."

Ganjouk received them, immediately took out a pair and then proceeded in sticking one in between his extremely puffy eyelids respectively on each eye, "Yes, that's more like it!"

The others kept exchanging bewildered looks.

Seeing only that another wall appeared before his eyes, Ganjouk turned around to look at the others, "By heavens! What happened to you?"

"We're sorry, boss," started one of the scouts, "Circumstances made us having to follow a suspicious group into the woods."

"And they noticed us..." another of them finished drearily.

"However, sir," said finally the third, "we were able to confirm that Necromancy Kiwa is alive and were currently in company of the Strawhat-pirates."

"Strawhat-pirates? So they're here as well... I see. So she's alive after all then."

Ganjouk scratched his cheek for a while as he was thinking.

"Okay, good job," he said finally, "It doesn't matter. I feel sorry for her but we got what she's after, she'll surely come back soon."

"But being with the Strawhats sir..." said Carlos carefully, "She can't be planning to...?"

"Yes, it's certainly a possibility..." Ganjouk laid a hand over his face and sighed, then continued, "...that she might be using them."

Suddenly the matches between the man's eyelids snapped from the stress of the weight itself and additionally from the pressure of his hand, "Ack!"

He started slowly to wander around, waving with his hands, "Now where did I put that damn packet..."

"Uhm, sir," started Carlos and took a step forward, "maybe you should try something else other than matches?"

The young man soon grew a bit nervous as he got no answer and started rubbing his neck.

"Uhm... Oh, that's right! I did the laundry this morning..." He started digging around in his pockets and then took out a couple of small objects and held them out, "Please try these clothespins instead, Ganjouk-dono!"

"Clothespins, you say? Impossible!" The big man turned around rapidly with a brute look on his face, almost as if he had been insulted, "I want matches, else it's no fun!"

"But, sir, they will just break agai-"

"It's no use, you newbie," interrupted another man who suddenly had entered the room so quietly that no one had noticed his presence until he had actually spoke. He stood leaning at the doorframe with crossed arms. The svelte man didn't wear a sailor-suit like the other four before him, nor a costume like Ganjouk. He wore an orange tight and armless top tucked into a pair of black pants. His dark knee-long boots clapped against the floor, and were the only thing that made any sound as he went to take the clothespins from Carlos and threw them backwards.

He went back to stand leaned against a wall near the doorframe instead. His posture was calm, but his aura was able to silence the whole room. With a glance at each person that were looking back at him, his sleepy but fierce dark eyes pierced through all others, sending shivers through their spines as he did.

Not another breath was heard before the man blew one of his long dark bangs out of his face and continued himself, "That ol' geezer won't give in, just give him his damn matches or he'll never shut up."

Ganjouk, who had been crawling helplessly around at the floor searching, now stood up and snickered, "Now, that harsh voice I could recognize anywhere. Have you been listening to our whole conversation, Gary?"

The mentioned man just snorted.

"You're such a sneaky guy," Ganjouk sighed, "I feel sorry for you and your foul mouth."

He received another pair of matches from one of the scouts and proceeded in putting them in, "You have such little respect for those above you."

"Above me, huh?" Gary snorted even louder. He pushed himself from the wall momentarily and abruptly shook his head to the left so that his meter-long pony-tail flew from behind to rest over his right shoulder and chest, "I'll just wait for the right opportunity to come and then maybe I'll strike you down."

Ganjouk snickered, "Yes, yes, threatening as usual."

"And why the hell are you weaklings still here?" Gary snarled at the scouts, "Go rest so that you can be of any use sooner."

One of them looked at Ganjouk and nervously stuttered, "S-sir?"

"Yes, you are dismissed."

The scouts left the room and carefully closed the door.

Ganjouk went to stand at the window and while gazing out he said, "Now, Carlos. You have to be more careful of where you decide to send out scouts. We can't have it like this every time, can we?"

Carlos straightened up, "I'm deeply sorry sir! It was very careless of me to do so!"

"Careless? It was naive and stupid," Gary snorted, "Why bother sending out scouts when we already know what will happen?"

"Now, now, Gary. It was good to get it confirmed that she's alive," Ganjouk turned to look at the two men, "We got what she treasures the most, she will definitely come back."

With his eyes closed an eager grin started growing on Gary's face, soon it turned into a dark and unmerciful snicker, "This probably means the Strawhats will come with her..." Shortly, the man couldn't help but broke out in laughter. He tilted his head upwards and gazed at the ceiling with an empty look, "Yes! Good! This is starting to get exciting! Hurry come here and fight me!"

A chill went down Carlos's spine. More kept coming as Gary turned around and left the room, his hysterical laughing echoing throughout the hallway outside.

Ganjouk sighed and slowly shook his head in dismay.

"Uhm... Ganjouk, sir?" said Carlos, his head turning to frequently look respectively at the older supervisor of his and the door his comrade had nonchalantly left open.

"Yes... He's always been like that."

The man walked back to take a seat behind his desk, "I only hope he can control himself this time. The excitement... it overflows his mind."

"...'This time'?"

"Well, that's a story for another time."

Ganjouk sorted out some papers and started putting them in nice piles, "Although you didn't tell me about sending out those scouts before, I am now going to give you permission to do it."

Carlos looked a bit confused as he took another step closer to the desk, "More scouts... sir?"

"Indeed," the man looked up at his subordinate, "I know that she will come eventually, but it bothers me why she hasn't showed up already. I feel sorry for you, but see if you can find out more about it. You are dismissed."

"Y-yes, sir!"

Carlos saluted and turned to leave the room. As soon as he closed the door he could hear yet another two snaps, followed by a range of old-fashioned curses.

* * *

_MY LAPTOP WORKS AGAIN! I couldn't write for a long, long time as all my material for this fic was stored on this computer, but here, FINALLY, is the 17:th chapter! :D_

_I've been going through the whole story, and despite my statement of not changing a thing before, I've gone and done it. I've edited and corrected many flaws by both spelling and well, telling. For example I've replaced all "Isha-san" with "Seni-san", as that apparently is the correct nickname. I think it's an improvement, but if you ever feel like reading the story over again (and well, if you even remember how it was written before) - then please tell me what you think about it :)  
_

_I really consider what you people say in your reviews, and I really hope too that my OC, Kiwa, isn't stealing the show too much. I have to include her even more from now on in the story as it's process depends on her involvement in the first place, but I guess I'll just have to compensate with more Zoro & Robin, right? :D  
I hope she isn't that unbearable of an OC xD  
_

_It makes me really happy when you review, people, I feel like the only thing I want to do now is to improve, improve and improve! It gives me motivation!  
_

_But, damn it, the new chapters make me feel like my story is really out of date xD I thought I was gonna get motivated as hell to write by the crew being together again but sadly no, it's rather the other way around o_o Seeing how powerful everyone has become... it feels like my plans are making them very OOC just in order of strength._

* * *

_As for Netrizhul: Since you're not a member, but I still want to reply to you, I'm doing it here instead. I'm glad you like at least the early chapters, but I have to disagree highly with you at your last comment._

_As I see it, any what you would like to call "romantic" relationships can be seen just as friendship as well. At least in real life.  
So what do you consider "true romance" to be then? Kisses and hugs? I don't wanna make enemies here on fanfiction but I really think that's just strange. Normally I would be going on and on about defining the word "love" here, but I'll skip that for now._

_Personally I think (if I were to think in more normal tracks considering "love") that even though I've taken it slowly, this is still huge steps for romance between the two. Because what they have in the manga/anime is friendship, anything else that me and anybody else write is not canon. Presupposing from that I really think that what I am writing is leaning more to romance rather than just friendship._

_Now I'm just gonna leave the unnecessary long comments at that and wish you a happy day. I'll try to update sooner, guys!_


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